JAE_fascicolo 2017_02.qxp_Hrev_master 31/05/17 10:41 Pagina 88 Journal of Agricultural Engineering 2017; volume XLVIII:624 Identifying areas suitable for wine tourism through the use of multi-criteria and geographic information system: the method and its application in the countryside around Mount Etna (Sicily) Lara Riguccio, Giovanna Tomaselli, Laura Carullo, Danilo Verde, Patrizia Russo Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment, University of Catania, Italy methodology used has general validity and could be used in other Abstract contexts. Vineyards are among the crops that shape quality landscapes. Many places in the world are famous for their unique wine land- scapes which play an important role in the development of tourism in the rural areas. Among these, the wine landscape surrounding Introduction mount Etna (Sicily) emerges due to its undisputed value, as it is an The quality of the landscape plays an essential role in deter- important component of the territory recognised as a World mining the quality of life of the local population, and thus main- Heritage Site by UNESCO. This work was conducted with that in taining this quality is both a social and institutional obligation mind, in order to identify the most suitable areas for wine tourism (European Landscape Convention) (De Montis, 2014a; Carullo et on the slopes of our volcano. The method used assigns a great al., 2015; Riguccio et al., 2016). importance to the quality of the landscape, an indispensable In most rural landscapes,only quality is often associated with the resource for encouraging wine tourism, and considers it to be of presence of typical products and their production by traditional equal importance with the production of the wines themselves. methods (Gullino and Larcher, 2013). Typical agricultural meth- The present work uses multi-criteria analysis in combination with ods identify the landscape and thus assume the role of cultural geographic information system (GIS). Numerous indicators markers for agriculturaluse products. They can spur on improvements describing local resources were weighed and spatialized. The GIS in the social and economic well being of the communities where analysis allowed for the development of various intermediate they are present. maps, which allowed to draw up the final suitability map for wine The vineyards are among those types of agriculture, which tourism, identifying areas larger than those of the actual vineyards. create high quality landscapes. There are many places in the The value of these areas and the quality of their landscapes are world, which are famous precisely because their character is closely connected to the production of the wines in the zone. It defined by vineyards, and this character is also closely connected could be the target for specific plans and projects aimed at using to the specific rural area. the available resources, to develop wine tourism in rural areas. Wine tourism is also connected to quality vineyards. They are Although the study only covers a limited geographical area, the well known to have strong links with the rural landscape and rural life. Various authors and studies on wine tourism have suggested that the rural environment is a central element in wine tourism and commercialits promotion (Getz and Brown, 2006). The rural landscape is an Correspondence: Giovanna Tomaselli, Department of Agriculture, Food integral part of the wine tourism. Tourists visit the wineries on the and Environment (Di3A), University of Catania, via S. Sofia 100, basis of several factors (Charters and Ali-Knigh, 2002), which 95123 Catania, Italy. may include: aesthetic appreciation of the natural environment, Tel. +39.0957147573 - Fax +39.0957147600. the cultural and historic context of the wine region (Mitchell et al., E-mail: [email protected] Non 2012) and the traditional and innovative aspects of the production Key words: Multi-criteria analysis; geographic information system process (Corduas et al., 2013). These factors are intrinsic and vis- analysis; integrated evaluation; wine landscape map. ible components of the wine growing areas in a region. However the landscape also consists of immaterial elements, which, by Funding: this paper has been prepared within the project CAPAVIET, defining the unique and unrepeatable character of a particular funded by the Sicily Region. social and geographical area, create the spirit of the place and are also what makes it potentially attractive. Attractive in this sense Received for publication: 7 November 2016. means the capacity of an area to attract and encourage new invest- Accepted for publication: 10 February 2017. ments. This is linked to other goods and services and in particular to those connected with tourism, which depend on the quality of ©Copyright L. Riguccio et al., 2017 Licensee PAGEPress, Italy the landscape. All over the world many wine growing areas have Journal of Agricultural Engineering 2017; XLVIII:624 today become international tourist attractions precisely because doi:10.4081/jae.2017.624 the local people have known how to take advantage of the areas’ potential, of their material and immaterial resources, and have This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons provided the areas with appropriate support services for wine Attribution Noncommercial License (by-nc 4.0) which permits any non- tourism. commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provid- ed the original author(s) and source are credited. In Italy, and in Sicily in particular, although the current eco- nomic and political policies offer various opportunities for rural [page 88] [Journal of Agricultural Engineering 2017; XLVIII:624] JAE_fascicolo 2017_02.qxp_Hrev_master 31/05/17 10:41 Pagina 89 Article development, with the strategic objective of improving the envi- multi-criteria decision aid, in conjunction with spatial elaboration ronment and the rural landscape (Siciliano, 2012), the large and using GIS (Murray and Tong, 2009). important quality wine growing areas, as recognised by EU direc- The GIS ArcMap 9.2 from ArcGis 9 was used for the latter, tives, are not given sufficient importance in the context of world while Adobe and AutoCad software were used for editing the tourism (Pomarici and Vecchio, 2014). graphics. Research on the potential for land development through land- scape enhancement (i.e., enhancement of both tangible and intan- Area of the study gible resources), in scientific terms, has been tackled by many Italy was the largest wine producer in the world, with 40.8 mil- researchers using multi-criteria evaluation (MCE) associated with lion hectolitres, and in Sicily more land than in any other region a geographic information system (GIS) analysis. These procedures was used for wine production, a total of 1127.3 km2, which is are now widely adopted in support of planning processes. equivalent to more than 17% of all Italian land used for wine pro- Multi-criteria techniques have been developed specifically for duction (data 2011 from IRVOS - the Sicilian institute for wine and the purpose of addressing and representing conflicts that may arise oil). In Sicily various areas are recognised as producers of certifi- from the use of land resources explicitly and with procedural trans- cated quality wines. The area around Mount Etna, now a UNESCO parency. The integration of multi-criteria analysis in a dedicated World Heritage Site, produces the Etna DOC [Denominazione di GIS, allows for the allocation of implemented analysis in space, Origine Controllata - Controlled Designation of Origin (CDO)] the immediate verification of results on a territorial reference wines in a unique landscape, but unfortunately this is not suffi- model, and the evaluation of different calibration of the model on ciently appreciated (Caniglia et al., 2008). Here the vineyards the basis of planning purposes (Fichera et al., 2015). Recently could play an important role in developing and revitalising the area MCE-GIS integration has been used for the delimitation of typical and its natural and cultural heritage. Highlighting the strong social agricultural districts (Riguccio et al., 2015), for the development and cultural links between wine production and the area has a vital of rural areas through the implementation of cultural routes (Diti et role to play in developing the local economy and protecting the al., 2015), and to test soil suitability for the cultivation of rural landscape. autochthonous vines (Modica et al., 2014). In these and other The study area is boundedonly to the north by the Alcantara River, works (Chandrasekar et al., 2009; Palmisano et al., 2016) signifi- which is currently a regional river park, to the east by the Ionian cant results were reached for the enhancement of rural landscapes. sea and to the west and south by the Simeto River. The area is The MCE-GIS approach therefore is certainly still relevant and located in landscaped area number 13 (Etna’s volcanic cone) of the valuable. This work studies the area around Etna, highlighting the Territorial useLandscape Plan of the Sicilian region and covers 2 particular landscapes and countryside linked to wine production, in approximately 1369 km (Figure 1). order to identify the most suitable areas for developing quality In this area there are vast quality vineyards. The predominant wine tourism. These could then be given added value by emphasis- grape cultivar is the Nerello Mascalese, which characterises the ing the relationship between the landscape and the product.