World Data

The New Zealand Land Resource Inventory (NZLRI) is a national database of physical land resource information. It comprises two sets of data compiled using stereo aerial photography, published and unpublished reference material, and extensive field work:

1. An inventory of five physical factors (rock type, soil, slope, present type and severity of erosion, and vegetation). A 'homogeneous unit area' approach is used to record the five physical factors simultaneously to a level of detail appropriate for presentation at a scale of 1:50,000.
2. A Land Use Capability (LUC) rating of the ability of each polygon to sustain agricultural production, based on an assessment of the inventory factors above, climate, the effects of past land use, and the potential for erosion. The NZLRI covers the country in 11 regions, each with a separate LUC classification.

The first edition NZLRI provides national coverage from mapping between 1973 and 1979 at a scale of 1:63,360. A limited revision regional upgrade of the north Waikato area was completed at a scale of 1:63,360 in 1983. Second edition NZLRI regional upgrades at a scale of 1:50,000 have been completed for Northland, Wellington, Marlborough and Gisborne-East Cape. Third edition NZLRI layers contained a restructured polygon attribute table to allow the core NZLRI to complement the newly created fundamental soil layers with minimal duplication.

Update of Edition 3 NZLRI. This update involves ++no new mapping++, but does include a ++new National Land Use Capability legend++ correlated for all regions across New Zealand. Attributes include original LUC units codes and unit descriptions so that users more familiar with original regional codes and North Island correlations can track the pedigree of units from old to new codes and descriptions.

This layer has been updated, the new version can be found here:

FSL New Zealand Soil Classification v1.1 - Informatics Team | | Environment and Land GIS | LRIS Portal (scinfo.org.nz)

The soil fundamental data layers (FDLs) contain spatial information for 16 key attributes, each of which is measurable (i.e. is given a numeric value rather than being assigned to a descriptive class or category) and is recorded in appropriate units of measure. Since attributes have measurable values, FDLs are particularly useful in computer modelling and have enabled researchers and resource management decision-makers to make the most of rapid developments in GIS technology. Key soil attributes were selected through a consultation process with stakeholders, and generally fall into three groups: soil fertility/toxicity, soil physical properties (particularly those related to soil moisture), and topography/climate (T). Parameters include slope, potential rooting depth, topsoil gravel content, proportion of rock outcrop, pH, salinity, cation exchange capacity, total carbon, phosphorus retention, flood interval, soil temperature, total profile available water, profile readily available water, drainage, and macropores (shallow and deep).

Regional soil databases were the key to generating FDLs. New Zealand was subdivided into several geographic regions and soil scientists were allocated a region for which they developed a ‘regional legend’, i.e. database. Regional data were correlated using the New Zealand Soil Classification (NZSC), referenced to the National Soils Database (NSD) and other relevant data sources, and then linked to the soil polygons in the New Zealand Land Resource Inventory (NZLRI). This layer holds the NZSC data upon which the remaining FSLs were based.

The NZLRI is a spatial database containing about 100,000 polygons (map units), each of which describes a parcel of land in terms of five characteristics or attributes (rock, soil, slope, erosion, vegetation). This layer represents a GIS dissolve on the soil attribute of the NZLRI.

New Zealand National Digital Elevation Model (South Island) - a 25 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 software.

New Zealand National Digital Elevation Model (North Island) - a 25 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 software.

The New Zealand Land Cover Database (LCDB) is a multi-temporal, thematic classification of New Zealand's land cover. It contains 33 mainland classes (35 including the offshore Chatham Islands). The classification has evolved from version to version but backward compatibility has been maintained. Geographic features are described by a polygon boundary, a land cover code, and a land cover name at each of four nominal time steps; summer 1996/97, summer 2001/02, summer 2008/09, and summer 2012/13. The data set is designed to complement in theme, scale and accuracy, Land Information New Zealand’s 1:50,000 topographic database. LCDB is suitable for use in national and regional state-of-environment monitoring, forest and shrubland inventory, biodiversity assessment, trend analysis and infrastructure planning. The classification used in LCDB v4.1 is presented in the document 'LCDBClassesAtVersion4.1.pdf' and a table correlating LCDB classes over all four LCDB versions is presented in the document 'LCDBClassCorrelations.pdf'. Both of these documents are available as an attachment to this dataset in the LRIS portal (lris.scinfo.org.nz/) and on the LCDB project site (www.lcdb.scinfo.org.nz). LCDB v4.1 was released in July 2015 and includes corrections to all time steps 1996/97, 2001/02, 2008/09 and 2012/13. A description of work undertaken for this release (including that in all earlier releases) is presented in the Lineage section. Of particular note at 4.1 is the re-mapping of Chatham Islands - first mapped at version 2, but then not continued through versions 3.0, 3.3, and 4.0 because of resource constraints. “EditAuthority” and "EditDate" are attributes, maintained since version 3.0 to indicate authorship and nominal date of polygon mapping, edit or change. The data is referenced to the New Zealand Transverse Mercator 2000 projection (NZTM2000) which uses the NZ Geodetic Datum 2000 (NZGD2000). Errors in the data due to misclassification (not changes since mapping) or poor delineation can be reported to Landcare Research for inclusion in the next release using the online feedback mechanisms in lris.scinfo.org.nz/.

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 mineralogical 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 attributes relating to soil drainage. Soil drainage is described as a class. Drainage classes are assessed using criteria of soil depth and duration of water tables inferred from soil colours and mottles. Drainage classes used here are the same as those used in the NZ Soil Classification (Hewitt 1993), and outlined by Milne et al. (1995).

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.

The 1:1,000,000 scale Vegetative Cover Map of New Zealand is the first vegetation survey which can be applied nationally for planning, research, and education. It optimises the cartographic potential of the vegetation information available in the early 1980s and provides a historical record which will aid in future analyses of vegetative cover and land utilisation. The map classification recognises 47 Vegetative Cover Classes identified by alphanumeric code and 17 Vegetative Cover Elements identified (only on the printed map) by symbols and patterns. The map is published as two sheets 730mm x 880mm covering the three principal islands of New Zealand and all offshore islands within 100km of the coast. The map was accompanied by a 153 page, illustrated, book which discusses New Zealand's vegetation and describes the 47 classes.

The book to accompany this dataset is available as an epub from:
mebooks.co.nz/index.php?route=product/product&prod... .

This soil map for Christchurch City was compiled at 1:25,000 scale from several published and unpublished soil maps held by Landcare Research including:

Christchurch Region NZ Soil Survey Report 16 1:63 360
Part Paparua County NZ Soil Bureau Bulletin 34 1:31 860
Part Port Hills NZ Soil Bureau Bulletin 35 1:31 860
Heathcote County NZ Soil Bureau Report 1 1:31 860
Part Port Hills unpublished map 1:10 000
Sumner region NZ Soil Survey Report 70 1: 8 000

The database was constructed containing attributes relating to land use for each map unit and three land use interpretations generated: horticultural versatility, land use capability and urban suitability.