Vineyard irrigation and assessment of ecosystem service: Experimental trials on “Catarratto” cultivar for the production of “Bianco di Alcamo” DOC wine

Water is an important resource for humans both for drinking and for irrigation. In the case of irrigation, the use of water resources leads to many direct benefits for farmers. The use of irrigation water, in addition to having consequences for those directly involved, determines positive externalities on the ecosystem in general. In this research the value of the ecosystem service that determines water for irrigation was estimated. The method used was that of the gross margin method which determined a value of 200.10 (sic)/ha. The research results are very important in relation to climate change which makes water increasingly important as an element of production in Mediterranean environments.