Long period measurements of rainfall and soil erosion in grass covered and cultivated sloping vineyards in the Alto Monferrato region (Piedmont, NW Italy)

In the "Alto Monferrato" region (Piedmont, NW Italy), measurements of runoff and soil losses have been carried out in three plots of a sloping vineyard to know the influence of different inter-row soil cultivations techniques on soil erosion. The vines inter-rows of the plots are managed with different techniques: controlled grass cover, conventional or reduced tillage. In the period between years 2000 and 2009, 161 rainfall events producing runoff of at least 0.03 mm ha-1 have been recorded. Runoff generally increases with the rainfall amount and is lower for the grass covered plot than others, especially when the event rainfall is higher than 80 mm. Soil losses increase with the maximum rainfall intensity registered during the event. The investigation shows that controlled grass cover in the inter-rows of vineyards has an important effect on protection of soil from erosion.During storms and intense rainfalls soil loss in the grass cover plot was more than 58% lower than in the tilled plots.