The portfolio is responsible for the stewardship of data and infrastructure associated with our nationally significant land and soil databases. This includes acquisition of new data through field surveys, remote sensing technology and innovative data science modelling methods. Our science underpins land environment monitoring indicators and tools used in national, regional and industry reporting. Examples include monitoring of versatile land loss, ecosystem services, changes in land cover and land use, as well as supporting tools to model nutrient losses from land, hydrology and climate dynamics, and future land use scenarios.
Our role is to enhance the quality, accuracy, spatial coverage and accessibility of soil and land resource information for New Zealand. We do this via five key research priority areas, and a number of widely used websites that provide the public and industry with access to New Zealand land resource information and knowledge.
Research priorities
- Soil characterisation
- Land cover and land use
- Uncertainty and land resource modelling
- Ecosystem services
- Data stewardship and delivery
