Summary
This layer began from a combination of landcare groundtruthed data, and lcdb4, and agribase data. This was then used as a base dataset to begin the next phase which was digitising the land use from imagery. 2011, 2014, 2016 imagery, Google Earth and Google Street View was used where available (at times the imagery used was recorded in the data). The digitized landuse was then verified by BOPRC Land Management Staff. A series of ground truthing exercises were conducted to help validate some areas and also classify areas that were unknown. Not all of the data has been verified as correct or has been groundtruthed. Land use may have changed since the dates of the aerial photos used to digitize the layer and may have been incorrectly categorised. However this is the only complete and best information available.
Description
This is the latest version dated August 2017 – for additional information about this data, please contact the geospatial team at the Bay of Plenty Regional Council by emailing geospatial.jobrequests@boprc.govt.nz
List of landuse codes used in the land use class attribute field:
Land use code Description
arable Used for cropping for the majority of the year. Mostly maize in our catchment. Look for bright green and rows for summer aerial photos or bare ground for winter ones.
dairy The dairy milking platform. It will have a dairy shed and tanker track. It does not include dairy support where replacement stock are grazed
deer Land that is primarily deer farmed. May be difficult to tell but look for deep tracking along fence lines, round deer sheds and use GE street view where possible.
forest exotic Easy to tell pines but not so easy with eucalyptus/blackwood’s etc. Look for rows.
forest native Should all be caught by LCDB4 but otherwise relatively easy to tell?
fruit kiwifruit Shelterbelts, frost covers etc. Use GE for up-to-date aerials as there has been a lot of recent kiwifruit development.
other Anything that doesn't fit in the other classes but please make a note if you can tell what it is
scrub Can be difficult to tell from forest. Includes exotic scrub but not wetlands.
sheep and beef Dry stock farms which will have a mix of both sheep and beef. Low intensity.
vegetables Very few but likely to feature glasshouses
viticulture Probably none
Orchards - other Includes avocados and any other orchards
wetlands Wetlands which are predominantly native vegetation or willow. Does not include wet pasture with rushes in it that is grazed.
lifestyle - mixed land use Small blocks with multiple land uses.
Urban - buildings - roads
High intensity beef or dairy grazing These will be very difficult to tell and are more likely to get classed as sheep and beef.
Unsure If you can't tell what the land is used for. These will need to be ground-truthed
Credits
The work on this dataset was co-managed by various staff at the Bay of Plenty Regional Council from the Geospatial team, Land Management Team, and Science Team.
Use limitations
This layer was developed and its purpose intended as an input into the ICM (Integrated Catchment Model) Project.
Because of data limitations (poor data coverage, aerials from different years only available for different areas) there are so many variations in the selecting land use that the job of getting accuracy to farm level is a massive undertaking and mostly captured manually. The only real automation process came at the beginning of the exercise to build the base layers.
The agri-base data is a good starting point in terms of using the stocking values to help determine what the land/farm might be used for. However very large farms could have multiple stock types or uses spread across multiple parcels which sometimes weren’t distinguishable using aerial photography (e.g massive pasture areas all with sheep and beef and dairy and deer). Agribase data has been collected voluntarily over a number years and it’s hard to say how up to date the data is in terms of land use and stock numbers (e.g sheep and beef in 2004 might now be arable land).
LCDBv4 is compatible in scale and accuracy with Land Information New Zealand’s 1:50,000 topographic database. The scale of the land use layer needed to be at farm scale (1:5000). LCDBv4 was used in the Rangitaiki to assist with separating out land use in large properties or farms.
Dairy Discharge consents were used to help identify Dairy land use. One limitation would be that Dairy farms can cover multiple parcels. Used the Ownership layer to help with the selection process based on owner’s names.
The Bay of Plenty Regional Council cannot guarantee the accuracy of this dataset and it is to be used for general information purpose only and is indicative only. This dataset is not to be used for any other purpose other than for what is was intended.
