As part of the Horizon Europe MSCA Staff Exchange project SOSVITI, Alessia D’Agatta, researcher from Sapienza Università di Roma, carried out a secondment focused on land-use change analysis and predictive modelling in European vineyards, contributing directly to the data integration and modelling objectives of the project.

During her secondment, Alessia worked on the analysis of long-term vineyard dynamics using harmonised European datasets, with particular emphasis on spatial patterns, drivers of change, and future projections. Her work followed a structured methodological framework, combining remote sensing, geospatial analysis, and statistical modelling.

Main Tasks and Activities Performed

The activities developed during the secondment included:

• Analysis of vineyard land-use changes using CORINE Land Cover data, identifying vineyard losses and gains between 1990 and 2018 across different European regions.
• Geographical characterisation of vineyard changes, categorising spatial patterns according to:
  • Administrative variables, such as country and regional context.
  • Geophysical variables, including elevation, slope aspect, and aridity index, allowing the assessment of environmental constraints on vineyard persistence and expansion.
• Assessment of socioeconomic drivers, analysing land-use changes in relation to country- and regional-level socioeconomic indicators, supporting a more integrated understanding of human–environment interactions in viticultural landscapes.
• Development of a predictive framework based on a Markov Chain Model, designed to simulate and predict future vineyard land-use changes using the full temporal archive released by Copernicus. This approach provides a quantitative basis for anticipating future trends under different territorial and environmental conditions.

Contribution to SOSVITI Objectives

Alessia D’Agatta’s work contributes directly to WP3 (Data integration, modelling and DSS development) of SOSVITI, strengthening the project’s capacity to:

• Integrate long-term land-use datasets into decision-support tools,
• Identify spatial and socioeconomic drivers of vineyard transformation,
• Support scenario-based planning for sustainable soil and land management in viticulture.

Her secondment exemplifies the value of interdisciplinary and international knowledge exchange promoted by the MSCA Staff Exchange programme, combining expertise in geography, remote sensing, and modelling to address key challenges in sustainable viticulture across Europe.

The SOSVITI consortium warmly acknowledges the contribution of Alessia D’Agatta and the Sapienza University of Rome, reinforcing the strong collaboration between partners in advancing data-driven approaches for resilient vineyard landscapes.