About LAWAWhenua, Hau, Wai Aotearoa

Land, Air, Water Aotearoa (LAWA) has been established by like-minded organisations with a view to helping local communities find the balance between using natural resources and maintaining their quality and availability.

Initially a collaboration between New Zealand’s 16 regional and unitary councils, LAWA is now a partnership between the Te Uru Kahika - Regional and Unitary Councils Aotearoa, Cawthron Institute, Ministry for the Environment, the Department of Conservation, Stats NZ and has been supported by the Tindall Foundation and Massey University. Hawke's Bay Regional Council are proud to be a part of LAWA.

What does LAWA do?

LAWA connects you with New Zealand's environment through sharing scientific data. You can find much of this information on this the Regional Council website, but LAWA has been designed to make the displays easy to understand for less technical readers!  We monitor around the region so we know what’s going on in our environment, helping our communities to find a balance between using natural resources and maintaining their quality and availability. The data supplied to lawa.org.nz by the Regional Council covers -

• River water quality  - including data on e-coli, nitrogen, phosphorus and turbidity
• Recreational water quality sites, i.e. suitability for swimming
• Beaches / coastal water quality
• Estuary health
• Lake water quality 
• River flow
• Rainfall
• Groundwater levels and quality
• Land cover changes over time
• Air quality in the airsheds of Napier, Hastings and Awatoto.

You can also compare this data nationally.  New Zealand’s natural resources are managed by 16 regional/unitary councils which collect, analyse and report environmental information.

Find out more about your environment at the LAWA website.