235 Bulgarian Journal of Agricultural Science, 16 (No 2) 2010, 235-242 Agricultural Academy APPLICATION OF GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM (GIS) IN THE SELECTION OF VINEYARD SITES IN CROATIA M. JURISIC, A. STANISAVLJEVIC and I. PLASCAK Agricultural Faculty in Osijek, University of J. J. Strossmayer in Osijek, Trg Sv. Trojstva 3, HR-31000 Osijek, Croatia Abstract JURISIC, M., A. STANISAVLJEVIC and I. PLASCAK, 2010. Application of Geographic Information Sys- tem (GIS) in the selection of vineyard sites in Croatia. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci.,16: 235-242 The research determines the methods for site estimation taking into account a number of objective limiting factors that occur in grapevine growing. The relief parameterization was used for calculation of geomorphologi- cal parameters. The pedometric mapping was used for calculation of pedological variables. The actual condition of land cover was registered by sketches and plans gathered during on-site investigations. Afterwards the sketches were georeferenced and over-lapped to LANDSAT satellite images in order to verify the actual situation. Logical spatial inquieries were used in the selection of optimal sites for a particular kind of permanent plantations. The optimal vineyard site was defined as an overlapping of locations where, based on the physical plan you can find either valuable or especially valuable land, or other arable land and of southern relief exposition with a total of an annual incoming light level above 1208 KWh/m 2 as well as the relief sloping not above 12% and under 2%. This implies an altitude not lower than 110 m and the soil acidity up to 5.6 pH. The inquiery produced a simple map showing the areas which are either suitable (1) or not (0) for grapevine growing. Estimation showed that a total of 17782 ha of the County are suitable for grapevine growing. Compared to the actual situation (1612 ha) it is discernible that about 10% of available resources have been used. Key words: geoinformation system, site estimation, physical plan, vineyard, utility map mjurisic@pfos.hr Introduction According to the statistics and trends in Croatia, the condition of permanent plantations is very disap- pointing. In the continental part of Croatia there are excellent conditions for vineyard growing. At present there are 58000 ha of vineyards, which means that there are by 60% less vineyards compared to the situ- ation 100 years ago (published in the Glas Slavonije, a newspaper, 2005). The biggest part of today’s 58000 ha belongs to non-commercial vineyards, which produce grapes of bad quality. In order to improve efficiency and competitive- ness of agricultural production the Government of Croatia issued in June 2004 an operational financing programme for permanent plantations i.e. vineyards. The aim is to plant about 33500 ha of plantations, out of which 13000 ha of vineyards. It is very important for Croatia to plant as many plantations as possible before joining the EU after which the production lim-