GIS Site Suitability Analysis for developing a vineyard in Sonoma County, CA ____________________________ David Jaquet Raster GIS & Modeling ( ) Fall 2005

Motivation Sonoma County is one of the two best producing wine regions of the north central coast of California. I am interested in visualizing the criteria matrix needed for correctly choosing a potential land development for a vineyard, I may want to develop a vineyard in the future.

Study Area Sonoma County, CA wine regions (Appellations)

Research Objectives This GIS suitability model analyzes potential suitable land for creating a vineyard in Sonoma County, CA. The model has both descriptive and prescriptive components as it describes various suitability criteria themes within Sonoma County and uses these criteria themes in a matrix to prescribe where a vineyard should be developed to be successful.

Methodology The physiographic criteria were chosen from a variety of web sources. These criteria can determine optimal land parcel characteristics for developing a successful vineyard. DatasetPrimary Derived CriteriaPrimary Raster Analysis Parameters Regional 30m 7.5' x 7.5' DEM 1:24,000 dataset Sonoma County Slope5% ≤ Slope ≤ 35%; reclass 1 category Sonoma County Aspect112° ≤ Aspect ≤ 337°; reclass 1 category Sonoma County Elevation0 m ≤ Elevation ≤ 800 m; reclass 1 category California Counties datasetSonoma countySelect Sonoma Co., make new layer California Land use datasetSonoma County agriculture landSelect all agriculture land in Sonoma County California Hydrography datasetSonoma County hydro featuresSelect hydro features in Sonoma County; reclass 1 category Distance buffer from hydro sourceRaster Dist. buffer m bad fit, 100+ m good fit; reclass with 2 categories Sonoma County soils datasetSoil constituents suitable for vineyards in Sonoma County Chemicals/organic constituents suitable for vineyards in Sonoma County Existing vineyards survey (1997)Vineyards surveyed in 1997 in Sonoma County Feature to raster; reclass to 1 category.

Flowchart 1 Re-project To Geographic Coordinate System Spatial Reference: NAD_1983_UTM_Zone_10N Datum: D_North_American_1983 Re-project To Geographic Coordinate System Spatial Reference: NAD_1983_UTM_Zone_10N Datum: D_North_American_1983 Vector Lattices (d38123, d38122) Define Geographic Coordinate System: Spatial Reference: NAD_1983_UTM_Zone_10N Datum: D_North_American_1983 Raster Grids (d38123, d38122) Define Geographic Coordinate System: Spatial Reference: NAD_1983_UTM_Zone_10N Datum: D_North_American_1983 Re-project to Geographic Coordinate System: Spatial Reference: NAD_1983_UTM_Zone_10 N Datum: D_North_American_1983 Re-project To Geographic Coordinate System Spatial Reference: NAD_1983_UTM_Zone_10N Datum: D_North_American_1983 Select/Query/mak e new layer Sonoma county Raster to feature CA Land use Features Select/Query/make new layer of Land use features within Sonoma County feature layer Sonoma Co Land use Features Continue to flowchart 2 Mosaic rasters d38123 and d38122 to a new combined DEM Overlay Regional DEM Sonoma County DEM Continue to flowchart 2 For elevation Continue to flowchart 2 For Slope Continue to flowchart 2 For Aspect CA Hydro features (Streams & Lakes) Continue to flowchart 2 Sonoma County feature Sonoma County raster Select/query streams and lakes within Sonoma Co. Sonoma Co Hydro features (Streams & Lakes) Continue to flowchart 2 Feature to raster Sonoma Co Soils features CA Land use (mgmtscape_vt) dataset (raster) Regional 30m 7.5' x 7.5' DEM 1:24,000 dataset California counties (feature) CA Hydrography- rivers/streams/lakes (features) sonoma_soils (Sonoma Co soils) dataset (feature) Re-projected Dataset Re-projected Dataset Re-projected Dataset Re-projected Dataset Re-projected Dataset

0-100 m Calculate Slope Grid (Raster) Slope Grid Calculate 5≤[slope]≤35 Sonoma Co DEM Calculate Aspect Grid DEM Aspect Grid Calculate 112≤[Aspect]≤33 7 Aspect Grid “Good Aspect” Overlay Hydro buffered Grid – 2 categories 0-100m and 100m+ Overlay Ideal land characteristics outside m ‘bad fit’ buffer zone “Good surface” Grid Potential land suitable for developing a successful vineyard ! Feature to raster Hydro Grid Reclass Hydro grid 1 category Sonoma Co Hydro features (Streams & Lakes) Hydro Grid Create Buffer: Max distance 1000m Reclass Buffer distance 2 categories m Hydro buffered Grid Slope Grid “Good Slope” Ideal elevation/ soil/land combined w/ideal surface Sonoma Co Soils features Select/Quer y vineyard suitable soils “Good Soil” Feature Feature to raster “Good Soil” raster Sonoma Co DEM Calculate elevation 0≤[DEM]≤800 Elevation Grid “Good Elevation” Sonoma Co Land use features Select/Quer y Agriculture land use Sonoma Co Agriculture land features Overlay “Good elevation with good soil” Grid Feature to raster Sonoma Co Agriculture “good land” raster Overlay “Good elevation/good soil/good land ” Grid Reclass Grid 1 category to display “Good elevation/good soil/good land ” “Good elevation/good soil/good land ” Grid Overlay Flowchart 2

Flowchart 3 - Test Existing Vineyards (1997) Features Feature to raster Potential land suitable for developing a successful vineyard ! Existing Vineyards (1997) Raster Reclass to 1 category Reclassed Existing Vineyards (1997) Raster Overlay 241,33 raster features of potential suitable land overlapped completely with 219,769 existing vineyard raster features, or a 11% Overlap.

Sonoma County, CA Elevation for Vineyards

Sonoma County, CA Slope and Aspect for Vineyards

Buffer zones from water source and surface to identify potential land

Potential suitable land for Vineyard development

Test of final output data w/existing dataset

Data Sources California Spatial Information Library - Regional 30m 7.5' x 7.5' DEM 1:24,000 dataset - California Hydrography dataset - California counties dataset The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection's Fire and Resource Assessment Program (FRAP) - California Landuse dataset USDA NRCS (Natural Resources Conservation Service) Soil Data MartUSDA NRCS (Natural Resources Conservation Service) Soil Data Mart - Sonoma County, CA Soils dataset The Russian River Interactive Information System - Existing Sonoma County vineyards survey (1997)

Analysis Results The existing vineyards dataset regionally matched my final vineyard potential land suitability output dataset. In the raster overlay test only 11% of outputted ideal locations overlapped with existing vineyards. In vector: Only 34% of the existing vineyards were crossed by the final outputted locations produced by this analysis. 66% of existing vineyards (1997) are not crossed by the final output locations or are located completely outside the final outputted locations, for example closer to water sources, and higher in elevation. This could be due to viticulturists’ experimentation in higher elevations, and other soils, able to get closer to water source by using certain irrigation techniques, and competition for the optimum areas for viticulture. In polygon feature also only 27% of outputted locations were crossed by the existing vineyards produced by this analysis. A reason for the final outputted not crossing existing vineyards or not located in close proximity, may be that these are agricultural lands used already used for other agricultural purposes, or there maybe other issues not visible in this raster modeling process.

Limitation of model I do not have expert knowledge in the viticulture field. Upon searching for data I came across companies whose professional services are focused on using GIS for developing vineyards with soil scientists on staff for conducting private soil surveys, and also viticulture scientists for cutting edge wine growing techniques and technologies. It is a well developed industry. Coming across current data is difficult, for example land use data, and I can also imagine that more vineyards have been developed since Certain datasets are not available or are for purchase, such as climatic data for regional wind data and regional temperatures. Future Improvements Conduct interviews with vineyard developers for more criteria parameters and maybe more current datasets. Research on using geostatistical techniques to obtain more precise results and maybe obtain more relevant results.