Mapping Missing Vines: Assessing the Health of Vineyards Using HD LIDAR Data

Wine is deeply tied to France. For generations, wine has been closely intertwined with the history, culture, economy, and landscape of its regions. This is true not only at the national level but also across the various regions of France. However, as climate change related factors increasingly place pressure on vineyards, there is a growing need to understand where vines are disappearing and which areas are most vulnerable. However, determining vineyard health parcel by parcel is slow, labor-intensive, and difficult to scale across an entire wine region. This project addresses that challenge by using France’s national high-density LiDAR data, a form of 3D mapping collected from aircraft (or drone), to identify missing grapevines. Focusing on the Rhône Valley as a pilot region, the workflow maps vineyard rows, estimates vine locations, and counts missing vines within each parcel. By turning large-scale 3D mapping data into practical information on vineyard conditions, this work supports climate-resilient vineyard management and offers an open-source approach adaptable to other French wine regions.