@article {Diagoajev.2015.15037, author = {Maria P. Diago and Mark Krasnow and Marijan Bubola and Borja Millan and Javier Tardaguila}, title = {Assessment of Vineyard Canopy Porosity Using Machine Vision}, elocation-id = {ajev.2015.15037}, year = {2016}, doi = {10.5344/ajev.2015.15037}, publisher = {American Journal of Enology and Viticulture}, abstract = {Canopy porosity is a key viticultural factor, as canopy gaps favor fruit exposure and air circulation, both benefits to fruit quality and health. Point Quadrat Analysis (PQA), as a standard method to assess canopy gaps, is laborious and time consuming, and therefore has limited utility. A new, objective, non-invasive, image-based method was developed and compared with PQA, to assess the percent of canopy gaps in vineyards of different viticultural conditions, and planted with diverse varieties, in New Zealand, Croatia and Spain. The determination coefficient (R2) of the regressions between the percent of gaps, using both methods, exceeded 0.90 (p\<0.05) in each site, and R2 of the global regression was 0.93 (p\<0.05). The time of the day and side of the canopy to be photographed did not significantly affect the algorithm{\textquoteright}s performance. Using this new diagnostic method, canopy management could be optimized to configure a desired amount of canopy gaps with the aim of improving the fruit quality and health.}, issn = {0002-9254}, URL = {https://www.ajevonline.org/content/early/2015/12/23/ajev.2015.15037}, eprint = {https://www.ajevonline.org/content/early/2015/12/23/ajev.2015.15037.full.pdf}, journal = {American Journal of Enology and Viticulture} }