APPLICATIONS OF RAMS MODELS FOR THE CREATION OF AGROMETEOROLOGICAL MAPS AT TERRITORIAL LEVEL.

At present the availability of spatially distributed weather information represents a fundamental point for the elaboration of agrometeorological advises and warnings to the growers. Meteorological data can be elaborated and simulation models can be applied producing information describing the real distribution of agricultural processes in the studied area. The main aim of this study was the working out and the set up of an automatic procedure able to create maps, distributed over the territory, describing several aspects of crop management: plant growth and development, disease infection, etc. The main problem was to create a matrix of data on a regular grid on the territory, containing the agrometeorological variables required as input by the simulation models and indices. The matrix on regular grid was realised starting from data generated by the numerical weather prediction models (RAMS) applied for Tuscany region in real time or near-real time (daily). The whole procedure should be set up off line to be operatively applied from Corporations and Extension Services operating in the analysed territory. The system should be verified by means of real data collected from authomatic weather stations and visual crop and phytopathological observations.