Tagged: land use

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

"This data records estimated erosion risk for different areas in the North Island.

New Zealand experiences high rates of soil erosion. In the North Island, this is mostly due to the historical clearance of forest for agriculture (see also Estimated long-term soil erosion). In contrast, erosion in the South Island is mostly due to natural processes, primarily high rainfall and steep mountain slopes.
Highly erodible land comprises land at risk of landsliding, gullying, or earthflow erosion if it does not have protective woody vegetation (Dymond et al, 2006). Landsliding occurs on steep slopes where the soils do not have the support of tree roots.
Gullying and earthflow erosion can occur on all slopes, irrespective of steepness, but the land is only considered at risk if it does not have woody vegetation.
Landslide erosion is the shallow (approximately 1m) and sudden failure of soil slopes during storm rainfall. Gully erosion is massive soil erosion that begins at gully heads and expands up hillsides, over decadal time scales. Earthflow erosion is the slow downward movement (approximately 1m/year) of wet soil slopes towards waterways.

This data set relates to the "Estimated highly erodible land in the North Island" measure on the Environmental Indicators, Te taiao Aotearoa website."

Wetlands support high levels of biodiversity. They provide habitat for native invertebrates, plants, fish, and bird species (eg fernbird, kōkopu, and eels), many of which live only in wetlands. Wetlands act as ‘kidneys’ and giant sponges – they clean the water of excess nutrients and sediment, control flood water and pollutants, and act as carbon sinks (removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere). Wetlands have strong cultural and spiritual importance for Māori. They are a food source (eg eel, whitebait) and provide material for weaving (eg raupō, harakeke (flax)). Draining wetlands for agricultural and urban development over the past 150 years has led to significant wetland loss and deterioration.

Summary report available at www.mfe.govt.nz/publications/fresh-water/analysis-...

More information on this dataset and how it relates to our environmental reporting indicators and topics can be found in the attached data quality pdf.

"New Zealand’s land area has been divided into 500 land environments, each defined by their unique climate, topography, and soils. The extent to which indigenous vegetation is represented in these different land environments, and how that vegetation is formally protected, is described by ‘threatened environment’ categories. These categories can be monitored to help us understand the effects of land cover change on indigenous biodiversity.

This data set relates to the "Indigenous cover and protection in land environments" measure on the Environmental Indicators, Te taiao Aotearoa website."

"This data describes the location of the different types of soil in New Zealand using the New Zealand Soil Classification.

This data set relates to the "Soils" measure on the Environmental Indicators, Te taiao Aotearoa website."

"The pressure from animal and plant pests is one of the biggest threats to biodiversity in the land environment. Pest predators (such as stoats and possums) eat eggs, birds, lizards, insects, and snails. Other animal pests (such as deer and goats) damage and kill trees and other plants and can compete with indigenous animals for the plants’ fruit and seed. Pest plants can out-grow the local vegetation. All these activities can dramatically change both our indigenous and agricultural environments.

This data set relates to the "Land pests" measure on the Environmental Indicators, Te taiao Aotearoa website."

"This data identified areas in the North Island that have been classified as being the most productive for growing food. It supports most crops across New Zealand. Expanding lifestyle blocks and urban areas reduce the availability of high-class land for commercial crop growing, and this land is unlikely to be returned to primary production. This affects our commercial food-production capacity.

This data set relates to the "High-class land for food production" measure on the Environmental Indicators, Te taiao Aotearoa website."

The status of our bird communities is an important indicator for the condition of our ecosystems. Many indigenous birds play key ecological roles, including dispersing seeds and pollinating flowers. In some situations, exotic (not indigenous to New Zealand) bird species can partially fulfil these roles. Measuring the composition of bird communities across public conservation land allows us to monitor how those communities are changing over time.

This data set relates to the "Bird species on public conservation land" measure on the Environmental Indicators, Te taiao Aotearoa website.

"This data identified areas in the South Island that have been classified as being the most productive for growing food. It supports most crops across New Zealand. Expanding lifestyle blocks and urban areas reduce the availability of high-class land for commercial crop growing, and this land is unlikely to be returned to primary production. This affects our commercial food-production capacity.

This data set relates to the "High-class land for food production" measure on the Environmental Indicators, Te taiao Aotearoa website."

"The pressure from animal and plant pests is one of the biggest threats to biodiversity in the land environment. Pest predators (such as stoats and possums) eat eggs, birds, lizards, insects, and snails. Other animal pests (such as deer and goats) damage and kill trees and other plants and can compete with indigenous animals for the plants’ fruit and seed. Pest plants can out-grow the local vegetation. All these activities can dramatically change both our indigenous and agricultural environments.

This data set relates to the "Land pests" measure on the Environmental Indicators, Te taiao Aotearoa website."