## 5 Conclusions  
This paper described a study performed by analyzing the simulations of some variables referred to the surface boundary layer in a vineyard environment, using suitable models able to process the micro-meteorological conditions and exchanges processes at the atmosphere/biosphere interface. Two models were used: The Land Surface Model UTOPIA (University of Torino model for land Process Interaction with Atmosphere), and the NOAH model. We performed the simulations with UTOPIA, while for NOAH we retrieved its data from the GLDAS2.1 and GLDAS2.0 databases. The selected areas were located in the Piemonte (Piedmont) region, NW Italy, which is characterized by the presence of many vineyards. In particular, the forcing data used in the input for UTOPIA came from an experimental campaign carried out during the 2008, 2009, and 2010 vegetative seasons in three Piedmontese vineyards. Additional simulations were performed using the meteorological data gathered from the freely available global database, GLDAS (version 2.0 and 2.1): the same data were used by the GLDAS team to perform the NOAH simulations. The results of simulations allow us to evaluate the daily values of the following variables: turbulent heat fluxes (sensible and latent), temperature and humidity of the soil. The UTOPIA output driven by observations within the vineyard were compared with the measurements carried out in the experimental campaign. The results showed that energy budget components on a daily basis generally agree with observations, with average over- or under-estimations comparable with the errors in the evaluations of such variables. Regarding soil variables, UTOPIA exaggerates the annual variations of temperature and predicts too-large soil moisture. Subsequently, the UTOPIA simulations driven by GLDAS were compared with the one driven by observations. The results of this comparison showed that, when GLDAS2.1 input were used, the quality of UTOPIA outputs was slightly worsened, with the deviations still remaining within the range of the experimental measurement errors. On the contrary, when GLDAS2.0 input were used, the outputs presented larger deviations with respect to outputs from UTOPIA driven by observations, almost for every variable, with the deviations often being beyond the measurement errors. Finally, the UTOPIA simulations driven by GLDAS were compared with the outputs of the NOAH model: in this case, UTOPIA soil and vegetation was initialized as for the NOAH simulations, in order to have the same initial configuration for both models. The results of this comparison showed that the two models can be considered more or less equivalent, with average differences among them comprised within the range of the measurement errors. However, for soil variables, the largest differences between the models appear in the extremes. Since NOAH minima of VWC (maxima of TS) appear to be too low (high) considering the physical processes acting on temperatures and moistures, such as the limitation to evapotranspiration due to dry soil, and the limitation of soil cooling due to the water freezing, perhaps we may conclude that UTOPIA values for soil variables appear slightly more realistic. The following are available online at [[http://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/9/18/3880/s1](http://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/9/18/3880/s1)]([http://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/9/18/3880/s1](http://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/9/18/3880/s1)), Sections S1-S4: statistics of the input data used for the UTOPIA simulations, statistics of the simulations expressed in form of violin plots, time series of a term of simulated and observed soil temperatures, and correlation coefficients between observed and simulated data in experiments EXP1-3. [PERSON] and [PERSON] have contributed in equal measure to the research article. This research was partially funded by \"MACSUR--Modelling European Agriculture for Food Security with Climate Change, a FACCE JPI knowledge hub\" funded for the Italian partnership by the Italian Ministry of Agricultural Food and Forestry Policies (D.M. 24064/7303/15).