Hillslope Vineyard Rainfall-Runoff Measurements in Relation to Soil Infiltration and Water Content☆

Abstract Agricultural management influences the rainfall-runoff processes and has relevant effect on soil erosion, especially on hillslope vineyards. Mechanization in the inter-row is particularly important in this issues. Vegetation cover, soil structure modification and crust formation dramatically influence the overland flow. In this work ponded infiltration measurements in relation both to soil water content measurements and to long time series of rainfall-runoff were performed. In fact in the case of event scale mathematical models, soil hydrology theory provides the methods to evaluate some key parameters. First of all a long time series of rainfall-runoff data measured by the IMAMOTER-CNR-Torino was analyzed in order to quantify the soil management effects in the Regione Piemonte experimental vineyards “Tenuta Cannona”. Then temporal variability of hydraulic conductivity and soil water content were measured in different soil surface conditions in relation to vineyard management. The analysis of the runoff data set and the infiltration tests showed how the increase in infiltration in tilled inter-rows was limited to rainfall events that occurred immediately after tillage, whilst the grass cover assured better reduction of runoff and higher hydraulic conductivity on a wider temporal scale.