A multicriteria sustainability assessment for improving integrated pest management for vineyards

This article presents a multicriteria sustainability assessment approach to compare technologies and practices aimed at improving pest management in vineyards. The developed Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis framework, based on additive multiattribute value functions, allows combining the outputs of three independent teams employing complementary assessment methodologies: Life Cycle Assessment; Environmental Risk Assessment; and Human Risk Assessment. This strategy yields a range of environmental, health and cost indicators, reflecting varied perspectives, in comparison with a typical situation using a single assessment methodology. The framework also considers stakeholder preference ratings of potential gains (or losses), and was implemented in an application comparing alternative Integrated Pest Management strategies for vineyards in Asti, Italy. The alternatives combined the following technologies: a smart sprayer; the replacement of synthetic Plant Protection Products (PPPs) by bioPPPs; an image-based Early Detection System; and a Decision Support System. Data were collected from the literature, laboratory tests, and field trials. The results consistently favored the combination with a conventional tower shaped air-assisted sprayer applying bioPPPs (in combination with synthetic PPPs), with higher cost (+27 %) and relatively similar life cycle emissions, but less risks for local species (−30 % to −80 %) and less risks for farmers (−99 %). This conclusion, which also holds for several model variants concerning the value functions and baselines, shows minimal dependency on indicator weighting, as it is the best one in more than 97 % of simulated cases using random weights in a stochastic analysis. The combination using a smart sprayer informed by the image-based Early Detection System did not perform so well, due to scouting operations using labor time and diesel, impacting costs (in excess of +94 %) and life cycle emissions (more than double). More efficient ways of obtaining images for the detection system are therefore needed. • Comparison of novel Integrated Pest Management (IPM) strategies for vineyards. • Multicriteria assessment included human health, environmental impacts, and costs. • Stakeholder preferences elicited and complemented with stochastic analyses. • Replacement of synthetic plant protection products was beneficial in field trials. • Scouting for an image-based Early Detection System needs improvement.