Making Better Resource Management Decisions

Date: 9 July 2008

The Ministry for the Environment (MfE) has helped lead the development of key national geospatial datasets in recent years. For instance, the New Zealand Land Cover Database (LCDB) translates satellite images of New Zealand into information on the different types of land cover on the ground. This information can be used, over time, to monitor and report on the changes to the state of our environment and provide the basis for better resources management decisions.

Development of the LCDB 1 and 2 has been led by MfE as part of a consortium of government agencies. The Ministry has developed a set of environmental classifications that uses physical parameters to map environment types across New Zealand. Two classifications have been released and a third is in development: 

Land Environments of New Zealand (LENZ) is a classification of environments mapped across New Zealand’s landscape – a classification that is nationally-consistent, works at arrange of scales and comes complete with information about climate, soils and landforms. It has been produced in partnership with Landcare Research New Zealand Ltd. 

The River Environment Classification (REC) has been developed for MfE by the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), with the involvement of some regional councils. The REC is an ecosystem-based spatial framework for river management purposes and provides a context for inventories of river resources, and a spatial framework for effects assessment, policy development, developing monitoring programmes and interpretation of monitoring data and state-of-environment reporting.

The Marine Environments Classification is being developed for MfE by NIWA. Looking ahead, the Ministry’s role in geospatial information will focus on the requirements of key policy initiatives, including, but not limited to:

• climate change, specifically the carbon accounting system
• Oceans Policy
• Sustainable Development Programme of Action
• National Environment Standards.

Most of the geospatial information required to support these initiatives will need to come from other agencies, including central and local government, Crown Research Institutes and potentially the industry.