Environment Data - Page 4

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.

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 the best available data (as at 2000) of Profile Readily Available Water (PRAW) which estimates water readily available to plants 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.

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 data (as at 2000) for soil salinity which is measured as percent soluble salts (g/100g soil). High salinity is detrimental effects on plant growth and yield, can reduce water quality and soil erosion. Salinity is an important land degradation problem.

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 data as at 2000 for total carbon (organic matter content) which is estimated as weighted averages for the upper part of the soil profile from 0-0.2 m depth, and expressed as a percentage.

The current New Zealand greenhouse gas inventory derives implied emission factors that vary between animal types (Ministry for the Environment, 2010). The spatial distribution of animal numbers (dairy, sheep, beef, and deer) was modelled using a land-use map derived from AgriBase (AgriQuality New Zealand, 2003) and the land cover database (LCDB4.1, Manaaki Whenua, 2015). The number of animals were scaled using statistics of livestock numbers at the regional level (Agricultural Production Census (APS), Statistics New Zealand, 2017) and spatially distributed the animals using the potential carrying capacity from fundamental soil layers (Landcare Research, 2011a). N.B. Deer numbers were missing from the APS data for 2015-16 for the Taranaki region which results in reduced GHG values for the region. New Zealand-specific emissions factors were then applied using the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) methodology for the agriculture sector for methane and nitrous oxide emissions (Ministry for the Environment, 2010).
Units: tonnes of CO2 equivalent/ha/year