ETD

• autonomous mowing
• low-input turfgrass management
• sustainability

This PhD thesis, titled "Exploring innovative technologies and alternative species for a sustainable turfgrass management," establishes a comprehensive framework for mitigating the high resource dependency and environmental impact associated with conventional turfgrass management. The study focuses on integrating Lightweight Autonomous Mowers (LAMs) with the strategic utilization of resilient and native turfgrass species adapted to the Mediterranian climates mixed with nitrogen-fixing plants such as clover. The consistent evidence across studies demonstrates that the adoption of battery-powered LAMs, operated at a high frequency, is central to sustainable practice. This technology effectively maintains and often enhances turf quality, resilience, and uniformity while concurrently achieving a substantial reduction in energy inputs, local CO₂ emissions, and labor costs compared to conventional mowers. A critical finding regarding the mowing regime under autonomous management is the decoupling of high mowing height from drought tolerance mitigation and drought recovery. While traditional low-input strategies increased canopy height to improved drought resistance, daily autonomous mowing showed that low mowing heights (e.g., 20 mm) did not exhibit significant disadvantages during drought stress or subsequent recovery periods when compared to taller regimes. This suggests that the frequent, non-stressful cutting enabled by LAMs may compensate for the expected negative effects of low mowing, implying that the potential for minimizing irrigation inputs may rely also on the mowing technology and frequency adopted rather than exclusively on canopy height. Furthermore, from an economic perspective, the autonomous mowing technology is comparable to the conventional mower at service life of five and nine years, respectively. Crucially, the autonomous technology becomes a source of substantial cost reductions once its operational life extends beyond the five-year mark. The strategic inclusion of grass–legume mixtures, specifically microclover (Trifolium repens), was consistently shown to be advantageous during the drought recovery period. This resilience is likely due to the legume component's nitrogen-fixing capacity and potentially deeper rooting systems, which sustain the mixed stand through reduced reliance on synthetic nitrogen inputs. Supporting the low-input model, an evaluation of nitrogen fertilization demonstrated that organic, amino acid-based N-foliar fertilization can serve as a sustainable alternative to mineral N, maintaining turf quality and potentially improving nutrient uptake efficiency. Collectively, these findings endorse a sustainable, resource-efficient model for turfgrass management in Mediterranean climates, achieved through the integration of advanced battery-powered autonomous mowing systems and the deployment of resilient grass–legume mixtures to optimize input management and performance. This approach maintains a high standard of functional and aesthetic quality while demonstrably lowering the environmental and economic footprint of turf maintenance.