World Land Data - Page 7

Data on the economic performance of the agriculture industry describes agriculture’s contribution to the New Zealand economy. It provides supporting information for the land, atmosphere and climate, and freshwater domains.

This dataset relates to the "Economic performance of the agriculture industry" measure on the Environmental Indicators, Te taiao Aotearoa website.

UPDATED 21/04/2017
(See "Land domain updates" page for details; www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/environment/env...)

Different land uses put pressure on the land environment and can result in changes to soil health. Healthy soil supports the productivity of agriculture and forestry, and filters water to help prevent waterways becoming contaminated. Soils are considered healthy if they fall within the target ranges for the indicators of acidity, fertility, organic reserves, and physical status.

This dataset relates to the "Soil health and land use" measure on the Environmental Indicators, Te taiao Aotearoa website.

For raw data see "2015 land aotearoa soil health data for release.xlsx" at data.mfe.govt.nz/x/LTBnRL

One third of our land area is held as public conservation land and managed by the Department of Conservation (DOC) to protect natural and cultural heritage, retain areas of wilderness and enable recreation opportunities. Although the use of public conservation land makes an important socio-economic contribution at the local, regional and national level, increasing human activities on our protected areas can put pressure on these environments and degrade their cultural and aesthetic value.

This measure reports on the number of active recreation and non-recreation concessions by activity in each financial year, and the number of active concession operators (concessionaires) by activity in each financial year.

Rare ecosystems are ecosystems that either naturally cover very small areas or have very little of their original extent remaining. The extent to which they are threatened with extinction informs their conservation priority.

Column headings:
no_ecosys = number of rare ecosystems

This dataset relates to the "Rare ecosystems" measure on the Environmental Indicators, Te taiao Aotearoa website.

Land cover describes the extent of vegetation, water bodies, built environment, and bare natural surfaces (eg gravel and rock) across New Zealand. Measuring the composition and changes in land cover can help us better understand the pressures that different land uses are placing on the biodiversity and functioning of ecosystems.

Column headings:
area_ha = area of land cover measured in hectares

This dataset relates to the "Land cover" measure on the Environmental Indicators, Te taiao Aotearoa website.

The status of our bird communities is an important indicator of the condition of our ecosystems. Many indigenous birds play key ecological roles, including dispersing seeds and pollinating flowers. In some situations, exotic bird species (not indigenous to New Zealand) can partially fulfil these roles. A reduction in the distribution and/or decline in numbers for common and widespread species can equate to large losses of individuals and ecosystem integrity. By measuring the composition of bird communities across public conservation land (forest and non-forest sites) we can monitor how they change over time.

This measure reports on the estimated abundance of seven common bird species on public conservation land, 2013–2016.Common species are species having occupancy over half of public conservation land.

Livestock numbers reflect changes in the number of farmed beef and dairy cattle, deer, and sheep across New Zealand. Livestock farming is a widespread land use in this country. It is important to monitor livestock numbers, because concentrated numbers, or large increases in numbers, can affect the indigenous biodiversity, soil health, and water quality.

File contains total livestock numbers by region for each year over the period 1994–2015

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.

Land cover describes the extent of vegetation, water bodies, built environments, and bare natural surfaces (eg gravel and rock) across New Zealand. Measuring the composition of and changes in land cover can help us understand the pressures that different land uses are placing on the biodiversity and functioning of ecosystems.

This measure reports on land cover by class, regional council area, and change over time in hectares and percentage.

For more information on the Landcover Database please refer to: lris.scinfo.org.nz/layer/48423-lcdb-v41-land-cover...

"Long-term soil erosion is the average mass of soil lost per square kilometre per year (tonnes/km2/year) over a period of approximately 10 years. It is extrapolated from long-term measurements of sediment load in rivers. Extrapolation is based on mean annual rainfall, rock type, and land cover. The total sediment in rivers (tonnes/year) for a particular region is the sum of all soil erosion over the entire region (Dymond et al, 2010). Soil-erosion rates were calculated to 2012.

This data set relates to the "Estimated long-term soil erosion" measure on the Environmental Indicators, Te taiao Aotearoa website."