Data - Page 5

Soilscapes are defined as "a landscape unit including a limited number of soil classes that are geographically distributed according to an identifiable pattern". These first approximation soilscapes are derived from legacy data and expert knowledge.

Digital Elevation Model of Christchurch New Zealand - a 15 metre resolution, floating point precision, elevation grid generated from the LINZ 1:50,000 scale Topographic data layers (20m contours, spot heights, lake shorelines and coastline) using Landcare Research's in-house interpolation.

A downloadable TIFF image of the 1:15,000 scale SB222 soil map - Soils of the Bannockburn Valley, South Island, New Zealand by FG Beecroft. A full resolution PDF version is also available in the attachments section.

Note this is a more detailed soil map than the Grow Otago soils maps, but uses the old Genetic Soil Classification - soil naming conventions used in this map and the attached report may differ from those found in newer soils maps and databases.

The New Zealand Fundamental Soil Layer originates from a relational join of features from two databases: the New Zealand Land Resource Inventory (NZLRI), and the National Soils Database (NSD). The NZLRI is a national polygon database of physical land resource information, including a soil unit. Soil is one in an inventory of five physical factors (including rock, slope, erosion, and vegetation) delineated by physiographic polygons at approximately 1:50,000 scale. The NSD is a point database of soil physical, chemical, and mineralological characteristics for over 1500 soil profiles nationally. A relational join between the NZLRI dominant soil and derivative tables from the NSD was the means by which 14 important soil attributes were attached to the NZLRI polygons. Some if these attributes originate from exact matches with NSD records, while others derive from matches to similar soils or professional estimates. This layer contains best available, as at 2000, profile available water (PAW) data which estimates total available water for the soil profile to a depth of 0.9 m, or to the potential rooting depth (whichever is the lesser). Values are weighted averages over the specified profile section (0-0.9 m) and are expressed in units of mm of water.

Mean annual erosion rates (tonnes of soil/km2/yr) in the North Island of New Zealand under current landcover generated from EcoSat Woody (2001-2003).

This layer is not available for download on LRIS. If you are interested in downloading that layer, please contact John Dymond.

Reference: John R. Dymond, Harley D. Betts, Christina S. Schierlitz, An erosion model for evaluating regional land-use scenarios, Environmental Modelling and Software, Volume 25, Issue 3, March 2010, Pages 289-298, ISSN 1364-8152, DOI.

This layer was derived from three existing data layers: the Land Cover Database 2 (LCDB2) (MfE 2002); the Land Use Map (LUM) from the Land Use Carbon Analysis System (MfE 2008; Dymond et al. 2012); and EcoSat Forests (Shepherd et al. 2002). Indigenous forest classes from EcoSat Forests were combined with classes from LCDB2 to form basic ecosystems classes. Where indigenous forest was mapped by LCDB2, the type of forest was determined from the EcoSat Forests layer. The eight forest types of EcoSat Forests were reduced to three basic types: beech forest; podocarp-broadleaved forest; and mixed beech and podocarp-broadleaved forest. To produce a recent 2008 layer the LUM was used to update indigenous and exotic forest changes since 2002. The mapping was performed using 15 m pixels, which is equivalent to a mapping scale of approximately 1:50 000.

This data set (LCDB v4.0 Change) allows users to track changes back to earlier versions, and to reconcile derived quantities, such as the total area of a class in a region, to those derived from earlier LCDB versions. Additionally the authority (and date) for mapping the change is recorded in this database where such a change has been manually mapped.

The New Zealand Fundamental Soil Layer originates from a relational join of features from two databases: the New Zealand Land Resource Inventory (NZLRI), and the National Soils Database (NSD). The NZLRI is a national polygon database of physical land resource information, including a soil unit. Soil is one in an inventory of five physical factors (including rock, slope, erosion, and vegetation) delineated by physiographic polygons at approximately 1:50,000 scale. The NSD is a point database of soil physical, chemical, and mineralological characteristics for over 1500 soil profiles nationally. A relational join between the NZLRI dominant soil and derivative tables from the NSD was the means by which 14 important soil attributes were attached to the NZLRI polygons. Some if these attributes originate from exact matches with NSD records, while others derive from matches to similar soils or professional estimates.

Particle size data layer used in the creation of Land Environments of New Zealand (LENZ) classification. The classification layers have been made publicly available by the Ministry for the Environment (see data.mfe.govt.nz/layers/?q=LENZ for to access these layers).

The data defines the average particle size based on the soil information (from the NZLRI) and the mapped parent material. This particle size data layer is differentiated into five classes, silt and clay (Class 1), Sand (2), Gravel (3), Coarse to very coarse gravel (4), Boulders to massive (5). The class defined as "0" signifies areas where there are no soil attributes recorded (i.e. high peaks of the Southern Alps).

Additional details such as discussion about the accuracy and reliability of the LENZ soil layers and the technical definitions of the categories in this layer are defined in the attached LENZ Technical Guide.

Winter solar radiation data layer used in the creation of Land Environments of New Zealand (LENZ) classification. The classification layers have been made publicly available by the Ministry for the Environment (see data.mfe.govt.nz/layers/?q=LENZ for to access these layers).

Winter solar radiation reaches a minimum in June, the month when the sun is lowest in the sky and day lengths are at their shortest, hence the layer is the monthly average solar radiation layer calculated for the month of June. Estimates of winter solar radiation across New Zealand were derived from a surface fitted to monthly solar radiation estimates for 98 sites as described for mean annual solar radiation.

Data describing monthly humidity was used as a surrogate measure of cloudiness to improve the fit of the surface to the underlying data. This also increases the local accuracy of the surface predictions, as the number of meteorological stations used to fit the humidity surface is more than three times greater than the number of sites used to fit the solar radiation surface. For more details on the creation of these layers see the mean annual solar radiation layer.

The units for this layer are in MJ/m2/day, higher values signify areas that have higher levels of solar radiation. This layer has been multiplied by a factor of 10 (i.e. converted into an integer grid) to save space and make the grids more responsive. A value of 53 is actually 5.3 MJ/m2/day.

Additional details such as the climate station locations used in the creation of the layer and error maps are defined in the attached LENZ Technical Guide.