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Officine Maccaferri, together with the Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco DOCG Consortium, has completed a project dedicated to the prevention and monitoring of localized slope failures in the denomination’s hillside vineyards.
The pilot project integrated Officine Maccaferri’s solutions for land restoration and slope stabilization with the IoT technologies developed by NESA, a Group company specialized in providing environmental and industrial monitoring solutions and Early Warning systems.
In recent years, the increasing frequency of extreme weather events has made slope stability an increasingly important issue, with potentially significant impacts on business continuity and the profitability of wine-growing companies. The project was therefore launched to help protect a territory of outstanding landscape, productive and cultural value, recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, where hillside viticulture represents a heritage that must be preserved.
The Conegliano Valdobbiadene DOCG denomination covers 15 municipalities and extends across 8,760 hectares of vineyards, involving 3,300 winegrowers.
The solution developed by Maccaferri combined slope stabilization works – including gabions and reinforced soil structures – with IoT-based electronic diagnostic systems capable of verifying the effectiveness of the interventions over time. In particular, the project involved the use of sensor-equipped vineyard posts, the patent-pending Smart Poles developed by NESA, capable of detecting inclinations, vibrations and movements associated with surface instability phenomena.
Data collected can be transmitted to processing systems and used to report any anomalies, monitor ground movements and support predictive analyses. The integration of physical stabilization works, IoT sensor technology and environmental data makes it possible to transform these interventions into monitored infrastructures whose performance can be verified over time, strengthening the ability to detect early signs of instability before they result in significant damage.
“We are pleased to have made the Group’s expertise in slope stabilization and environmental monitoring based on remote smart sensor technology available to the Consortium,” said CEO Stefano Susani. “This project is based on a concrete model of cooperation in which prevention becomes a strategic lever to protect the most fragile territories and safeguard their economic, productive and landscape value.” “We chose Maccaferri because, in recent years, the company has worked to identify the most effective solutions, including in sensitive environments such as ours. For this reason, we considered it the right partner to provide materials and solutions suited to the complexity of our territory,” added Diego Tomasi, Director of the Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco DOCG Consortium.