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.

Active sand dunes are distinct coastal habitats that sit between the land and marine domains. Characterised by their moving sands, they support a unique group of plants and animals. These plant and animal communities are threatened by human efforts to stabilise dunes for their own use.

This dataset relates to the "Active sand dune extent" measure on the Environmental Indicators, Te taiao Aotearoa website.

Dominant land uses in New Zealand include conservation (eg national and forestry parks), forestry (eg for timber resources/wood supply), urban (eg built up areas and open parkland), and agriculture and horticulture. Each land use places different pressures on the land and on receiving environments such as waterways. These pressures can be both positive (eg increased productivity) and negative (eg biodiversity loss and reduced functioning of ecosystems).

This measure reports on agricultural and horticultural land uses by region.

An emissions inventory provides information on the amount of key air pollutants that are released into the atmosphere for a given location over a given time period. This enables us to identify sources of pollutants. By understanding the amounts that different sources contribute, air quality can be better managed and modelled.
We evaluated emissions for five key pollutants for 2015, the most-recent year that data were readily available: particulate matter (PM) less than 10 micrometres in diameter (PM10), PM less than 2.5 micrometres in diameter (PM2.5), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and sulphur dioxide (SO2), because they are the most important pollutants in New Zealand.
The grouped sources include: energy-related activities, construction dust, road dust, industrial process emissions (non-combustion), agriculture (emissions from animal housing), vegetation fires (burning agricultural residue and biomass burning), and incinerating of hazardous waste.
Only human-generated emissions were included in this emission inventory. No updated data for residential wood burning were available and was assumed to be the same as the 2013 national inventory.