World Data

Burning wood and coal for home heating, road motor vehicle use, industrial activities, and household outdoor burning are the key human-made sources of air pollutants in New Zealand. These pollutants have a range of health effects.
Measuring the contribution of each source helps us understand their pressures on our air quality. It also provides context for changes in emissions from individual sources. For example, from 2006 to 2013, PM10 emissions from road motor vehicles decreased 25 percent. However, this source contributed only 9 percent of the total national PM10 emissions from the four key sources. Therefore, this decrease in PM10 emissions from road motor vehicles likely had only a minor effect on total PM10 emissions.

Daily winter emissions and annual average emissions are presented as there is strong seasonality in emissions. Daily winter contributions were also assessed because this is the timeframe used by WHO and in national standards and winter months is when concentrations in excess of the standards most frequently occur.

This dataset relates to the "Relative contribution of key human-made emission sources" measure on the Environmental Indicators, Te taiao Aotearoa website.

Further information can be found in Environet and Golders Associates (2015). Home heating emission inventory and other sources evaluation. Wellington: Ministry for the Environment. Available at data.mfe.govt.nz/x/a5FAw6 on the Ministry for the Environment dataservice.

Flow is the volume of water passing a point over a certain time, and provides information about the availability of water for people and the environment. Overall, this affects how much water is available for irrigation, drinking water, hydroelectricity generation, and recreational activities. River flows also influence a waterway’s physical form, habitat, and ecological processes like migration, spawning, and food supply for aquatic life.

The file provides the estimated impact of upstream consents on the modelled median flow of a particular reach in the digital river network. This is calculated by upstream total consented takes by median flow.

Ocean acidification, measured by the reduction in sea water pH, is mainly caused by oceans absorbing and storing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Ocean acidification affects marine species in various ways. The growth and survival rates of some shell-building species are affected because they struggle to build their shells. The behaviour and physiology of some fish is also affected. This could influence marine ecosystems and commercial, customary, and recreational fishing or harvesting.
This dataset relates to the "Ocean acidification" measure on the Environmental Indicators, Te taiao Aotearoa website.