Agricultural & Environmental Data Analysis. From data to insight. For a sustainable tomorrow.

About & Portfolio

Dr Walaa Shtai portrait

Dr Walaa Shtai

Agronomist | Data Analyst

PhD Sustainable Agricultural Systems R · Power BI · Excel EN · AR · IT Adelaide, SA

The scientist behind the numbers

I didn't arrive to data science the usual way. I arrived to it through plants: starting with an Agricultural Science degree from Damascus, to an International Master in Horticultural Science from Italy, followed by a PhD in Sustainable Agricultural Systems across Italian vineyards and South Australian ones. Somewhere between the field notebooks and the statistics, I knew my favourite part was the moment the data finally spoke.

Four peer-reviewed publications taught me the discipline of evidence. Moving between Syria, Italy and Australia taught me everything else: how to rebuild a career from zero, how to work across three languages, how to listen before concluding, and how science changes when you finally see it through a grower's eyes.

Today as a plant physiology and climate adaptation specialist, I choose data as my working tool. Behind every dataset there is a living system under pressure, and reading it well is a form of care: for the crops, for the land, and for the people whose decisions depend on getting it right.

That is why Voilà Analysed exists. For those doing the real work: growers, councils, researchers and small businesses. Whatever your role is, if decisions depend on your data, you deserve the same quality of evidence researchers enjoy. Because well interpreted data turns decisions into strategic ones, and strategic thinking is what keeps a business, a farm, or a landscape sustainable for the long run.

I am based in South Australia, working locally and remotely, and I would genuinely love to hear what your data is trying to tell you.

Portfolio

Local council project · Biodiversity program

How can biodiversity data guide habitat restoration and better ecological outcomes?

The Case Study

A bird observation program run by a local council in Adelaide monitors bird life across a network of survey locations. This project analysed bird-observation data from nine South Australian locations covering 71 bird species. The question the program faces: how can its biodiversity observation data guide habitat restoration and better ecological outcomes?

My Role

After cleaning and quality checking the raw records from the Atlas of Living Australia, I prepared three views of the dataset: species richness for each location, the top 15 most abundant species across all sites, and the top 5 most abundant species in each location, to be integrated in Power BI dashboards and quarterly summary reports for council staff, project partners.

The Findings

Each view answers a different question. Species richness shows which locations support the widest range of species. The overall top 15 reveals which birds dominate across the whole council area. The per-location top 5 exposes the local character of each site, which is often what matters most when deciding where restoration efforts will make the biggest difference.

From Data to Insight

Good habitat restoration needs more than observations. It needs biodiversity data interpreted alongside ecological conditions and management goals. Raw records only become useful when they are turned into clear, meaningful evidence. That is exactly what Voilà Analysed does: careful data analysis, interpreted in context, supporting evidence-informed environmental management and genuine conservation outcomes.

Published research · Viticulture · Climate stress

How do grapevines respond when heatwaves, drought and high radiation strike together?

The Case Study

In South Australia's vine growing regions, heatwaves rarely arrive alone: they come with drought, and often with high radiation on top. Each stress damages the vine, but together they hit differently and harder. I investigated the impact of these three stresses, and how they interact, in a Shiraz vineyard in the real conditions grape growers face. The experiment took place in the Barossa Valley, during a six-month collaboration with SARDI (South Australian Research and Development Institute) as a Visiting Researcher at Waite Campus.

My Role

I covered the full research journey from the experimental design to the implementation in a commercial vineyard in the Barossa Valley, to data collection, analysis and visualisation.

The Findings

For growers, understanding the point where heat turns into damage, and how excessive light exposure accelerates it, shows exactly when to act. Informed decisions like timing irrigation and moderating light exposure protect fruit quality and keep vineyards resilient through hotter summers. For the wider wine industry, the research adds evidence to climate adaptation strategies that Australia's viticulture regions urgently need. These findings are published in the peer-reviewed paper and were presented to government and industry stakeholders along the way.

From Data to Insight

This published work sits behind Voilà Analysed's agricultural analytics service: taking complex field data and turning it into clear, practical insight, applied to the climate questions growers face right now. Coming from the belief that values live in what the numbers let you decide rather than in the numbers themselves.

📄 Published in OENO One (2026), with thanks to the co-authors and the SARDI Waite Campus research team for their contribution to this work.
Published research · Viticulture · Water thresholds

How much water does a vine need to get through a heatwave?

The Case Study

A potted-vine experiment in Northern Italy asked precisely this. How much soil water must be available to a vine for heat stress damage to stay limited? Too little water and the vine collapses under the heatwave; too much water is not sustainable nor always available. Somewhere in between lies the threshold.

My Role

I covered the full research journey from the experimental design to the application of four different irrigation levels, to data collection, analysis and visualisation, simulating heatwave conditions to find where the threshold lies.

The Findings

The results identified the soil water availability levels that keep vine functioning within safe limits during heatwaves, and the levels that do not. These thresholds give irrigation a measurable target: keep the soil above a known point and the vine keeps its leaves functioning through the heat. As using irrigation water wisely matters twice over, beyond the threshold, extra water does not necessarily mean more benefit to the vine; in fact, it might bring adverse effects to the final wine quality. And water itself is a limited resource not to be wasted.

From Data to Insight

This threshold thinking is the same service in another form. Every dataset, ecological or agricultural, has crucial points hidden inside it, and finding them is how monitoring becomes strategic. Understanding the critical levels means using only what is needed. That is what Voilà Analysed delivers: investigating complex data and turning it into clear, practical insight, supporting decisions that are both productive and sustainable.

📄 Published in Italus Hortus (2024), with thanks to the co-authors and the Free University of Bolzano research team for their contribution to this work.
Published research · Horticulture · Light management

Sunlight falls on every tree from above. Could the ground light up the fruit from below?

The Case Study

Modern apple orchards are often covered with anti-hail nets to protect the crop from hail damage. As part of this trade-off, the trees get less of the sunlight that drives ripening and colour. The shaded fruit at the bottom of the canopy gets even less light, which ends in uneven ripening and colouring. In an intensively managed apple orchard in Northern Italy, this project asked whether reflective ground covers could give that lost sunlight back: studied under a working anti-hail canopy across two growing seasons.

My Role

I covered the full research journey from the measurement design to systematic light measurements across canopy positions, heights and tree replicates under the nets, to data analysis and visualisation, published as a first author in the peer-reviewed journal Italus Hortus.

The Findings

During fruit ripening, when the reflective covers were in place, the amount of light reaching the lower canopy measurably increased under the nets, giving back a real share of what the nets held off. More light in the shaded zone means more even fruit ripening and colour. The ground cannot bring back all the sun the net holds off, but when covered with reflective materials, it returns a considerable part of it.

From Data to Insight

The same thinking applies to any growing system. Every field has losses hidden in its setup, and many of them have low-cost, natural compensations waiting in the data. Finding those patterns, and turning them into practical adjustments, is how Voilà Analysed supports decisions that lift productivity without adding much extra input.

📄 Published in Italus Hortus (2020), with thanks to the co-authors and supervisors for their contribution to this work.

Selected publications

  • Shtai, W., et al. (2024). Soil water availability modulates grapevine gas exchange and PSII response to heat stress. Plant and Soil.
  • Shtai, W., et al. (2024). Assessing soil water availability thresholds for heat stress mitigation in grapevines. Italus Hortus.
  • Shtai, W., et al. (2026). Physiological response of grapevine (cv. Shiraz) to drought, light exposure and heat stress. OENO One.
  • Shtai, W., et al. (2020). Total and diffuse light distribution within the canopy of an apple orchard as affected by reflective ground covers. Italus Hortus.