You may want to use it with pictures taken of the wine country as an example of the importance to the US economy. The only knon remedy of the infestation is to replant vineyards on phylloxera-resistant rootstock, a process which may eventually cost the industry one billion dollars. The technology is intended to provide timely information on the extent of infestation and factors affecting its spread. Remotely sensed data will be incorporated into the GIS to show areas of active infestation and to predict future spread. Finally, satellite data for the entire NAPA Valley are being analyzed to produce land use maps showing the decrease in grape acreage due to infestation and urbanization over the last decade.
Initial results indicate that heavily infested areas are clearly identified in the airborne imagery.
Early phylloxera detection will provide the vineyard manager more time in which to develp informed and cost effective replanting decisions. Project results will be made available to other interested grape growers, commercial remote sensing product vendors, and the borader agricultural community. Robert Mondavi Winery, University of California Coopertive Extension, California State University at Chico, University of California Davis.