Water efficiency in wine sector through regional funding
About this good practice
The drought in Catalonia prompted the CWP to organize sectoral conferences, creating a platform for organizations facing water management challenges and those offering technological solutions. This led to the ViWaTec project, co-financed by regional founds, aiming to improve water usage efficiency in the wine sector. The increasing demand for fresh water, fuelled by population growth, agricultural and industrial consumption, and climate change, has led to scarce and harder-to-manage water reserves. This has impacted viticulture, decreasing grape yields and wine quality, increasing production costs, and threatening long-term sustainability.
ViWaTec enhances the sector’s competitiveness by promoting sustainable practices and innovative water management technologies. It includes:
1) participatory diagnostics to improve water cycles in twelve wineries.
2) technical and economic evaluations that serve as replicable models.
3) a guide and catalogue for efficient technologies.
4) sectoral working groups for local debate and technical support;
5) multisectoral collaboration to develop cost-effective solutions.
Ultimately, the project strengthens the wine sector's sustainability, offering wineries opportunities to innovate, reduce costs, and adapt to climate challenges. It also underscores the importance of water management, with ripple effects across industries like food and chemicals, fostering R&D collaboration and raising public awareness of sustainable water practices.
Resources needed
Total cost of the project: €98,891.59
- Support from regional funds: €63,263.73
- 8 companies or researcher centers and 20 researchers involved.
Evidence of success
ViWaTec fosters sustainable practices and innovative technologies through participatory diagnostics in 12 wineries, technical and economic evaluations, a best practices guide with efficient technologies, territorial working groups, and multisector collaboration. The project has enhanced water management and sustainability in the wine sector, improved competitiveness, created business opportunities, and increased public awareness of sustainable water use.
Potential for learning or transfer
As outputs of the project, a mapping of needs and challenges in the wine sector's water management was conducted through a bibliographic search based on the territorial characteristics of Catalonia, winery types, and available resources.
In this activity there has been a strong involvement with a crucial role on the part of the project’s wineries, as well as other wineries that have wanted to participate in the working group, in order to define the specific challenges and needs.
The mapping of the past, present, and future analysis of the general needs and challenges of the wine sector in water management was done. Additionally, an investigation of successful cases of improvement in the efficiency of water use in the wine sector was also carried out through joint research between all the participants of the project at regional, national and international levels that was edited as a guide publication of success stories that can be downloaded openly.
Further information
Good practice owner
You can contact the good practice owner below for more detailed information.
Catalan Agency for Business Competitiveness (ACCIÓ)
