When a researcher choose or identify himself with a science, he is faced with countless lines of research, each one with its own methodologies, techniques and theoretical development. Because of this reason, this article concerns in discuss concepts and lines of research involved in the agroclimatic zoning. In principle, inside of Bioclimatology which plants are the main focus, there are several classifications of research areas such as Agricultural Meteorology, Agricultural Climatology, Agrometeorology and Agroclimatology. Whatever will be the subject matter addressed by the research lines of Bioclimatology of plants, there is a technique / methodology that is largely used by researchers: the Agroclimatic Zoning, whose concept is the delimitation and suitability of development and growing of plants in associations with regions where climate factor in macroclimatic and regional scales are the main question who need to be solved. The Agricultural Zoning takes care about the climatic attributes, the combination of factors such as soil (edaphic zoning), and socioeconomic environment, aiming to organize the rational distribution of crops economically viable, respecting the social and cultural characteristics of each region, serving, therefore, the basis for the territorial planning of land use. The Edaphic and Climatic Zoning has been considered as a complement to the natural potential of a region to plant a culture, in which, besides the climate, pedological aspects are in the study, and they have been studied in the same scale of Agroclimatic Zoning. To conclude, the Agricultural Zoning for Climatic Risks, beyond the variables (climate, soil and plant), applies mathematical and statistical functions (probabilistic in general) in order to quantify the risk of loss of plant culture based on historical occurrence of adverse weather events, especially drought and frost events occur especially in middle latitudes.
Research Lines; Concepts; Applications; Agroclimatology
