Land SciencePūtaiao Whenua

Soil Quality Management

The Soil Quality Monitoring programme tracks a set of physical, chemical, and biological soil indicators across sites that cover the region’s most prominent land uses - pasture, forestry, cropping and orchards. This helps us to better understand how the soil quality is changing over time and aids in long-term soil management.

Soil Erosion

Soil erosion results in a loss of land productivity and negatively impacts water quality, biodiversity and the land around us. The soil erosion monitoring programme assesses the effectiveness of HBRC’s erosion control measures, such as the planting of poplars and willows on farms, by monitoring sediment levels in our rivers and streams. The results inform the success of our conservation plantings as well as our wider erosion mitigation strategies under different land uses.

LiDAR and GIS

Recently HBRC partnered with Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research to use high-resolution LiDAR (Laser imaging, Detection, And Ranging) to investigate landslide susceptibility, land use capability, slope, stream connectivity and vegetation. 

Find out more about LiDAR and GIS

Land Use Capability and Catchment Projects

Land use capability (LUC) is a tool used by the land science team to classify land and can assist farmers with planning and conservation practices, such as identifying where land requires erosion control. A link to the LUC map can be found here.

At Pakuratahi, the land science team are monitoring the impacts of pastoral farming and production forestry on erosion and stream environments between two comparable catchments.

Read more about this project

Land Use

Our land use programmes provide valuable maps on the classification of land use by local councils and catchment areas. Over time these maps inform our region’s environmental targets for water quality, biodiversity, soil health, and as well as socio-economic targets and the impacts of urbanisation.

Riparian Monitoring

The riparian zone is where the land meets our rivers and streams. Our riparian monitoring programme monitors the change in these zones over time. This programme evaluates fixed survey sites, depending on land use, stream order, and catchment. The results of the programme help inform fencing, conservation and river management along our vital waterways.