Land (whenua) is taonga tuku iho (cultural property, heritage) and of special importance to Māori. As the whakapūmautanga (legacy for the future), whenua provides for cultivation and storage of traditional foods and plants – for customary use and mahinga kai, and helps sustain each generation. We report only on the available data we have, which cover a...

Adapted by Ministry for the Environment and Statistics New Zealand to provide for environmental reporting transparency. Dataset used to develop the "River water quality: macroinvertebrate community index" indicator (available at https://www.stats.govt.nz/indicators/river-water-quality-macroinvertebrate-community-index). Benthic macroinvertebrates are...

Adapted by Ministry for the Environment and Statistics New Zealand to provide for environmental reporting transparency. Dataset used to develop the "River water quality: phosphorus" indicator (available at https://www.stats.govt.nz/indicators/river-water-quality-phosphorus). Phosphorus in river waters is one of five parameters that provide an overview of...

Greenhouse gases (GHGs) absorb heat from Earth’s surface, warming the atmosphere and changing our climate. New Zealand’s share of GHG emissions is very small, but our gross emissions per person are high. Emissions mainly come from combustion of fossil fuels that emit carbon dioxide (CO2), and agriculture which emits methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O)....

New Zealand greenhouse gas emissions data for 1990 and 2015. Data are sourced from the 1990–2015 New Zealand Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory. Emissions are provided by sector (Energy, Indistrail processes and product use, Agriculture, Land–use, land–use change and Forestry; and Waste) and sector subcategory. IPCC 2004 global warming potential values...

Growing degree days (GDD) measures the amount of warmth available for plant and insect growth and can be used to predict when flowers will bloom and crops and insects will mature. GDD counts the total number of degrees Celsius each day is above a threshold temperature. In this report we used 10 degrees Celsius. Increased GDD means that plants and insects...

INDEX ONLY: These footprints are the index for the 'Sentinel2 2023 Chatham Islands' mosaic. It has been provided to enable users to explore coverage and capture dates of the component imagery. To enquire about ordering the imagery itself, please e-mail lucas[at]mfe.govt.nz. Some imagery is available to stream at...

Land cover describes the extent of vegetation, water bodies, built environments, and bare natural surfaces (eg gravel and rock) across New Zealand. Measuring the composition of and changes in land cover can help us understand the pressures that different land uses are placing on the biodiversity and functioning of ecosystems. This measure reports on land...

This dataset shows the total irrigated agricultural land area across New Zealand for 2002 and 2017. Agricultural land irrigated in 2017 is broken down by types of irrigation systems and farm type. Although it enables and improves farming, irrigation can also have adverse consequences relating to recreation, and can increase pollution and leaching of...

INDEX ONLY: These footprints are the index for the 'Sentinel2 2020 Mainland NZ' mosaic. It has been provided to enable users to explore coverage and capture dates of the component imagery. To enquire about ordering the imagery itself, please e-mail lucas[at]mfe.govt.nz. The imagery represented is a 10m, ten-band multispectral, cloud-minimised mosaic of...

New Zealand and Australia have the world’s highest rates of melanoma, the most serious type of skin cancer. Melanoma is mainly caused by exposure to ultraviolet (UV) light, usually from the sun. New Zealand has naturally high UV levels, especially during summer. The risk of developing melanoma is affected by factors such as skin colour and type, family...

This dataset contains ten lake water quality variables based on measurements made at monitored lake sites: chlorophyll-a, nitrate-nitrogen, total nitrogen, ammoniacal nitrogen, dissolved reactive phosphorus, total phosphorus, Escherichia coli, water clarity, and lake trophic level index (TLI3 and TLI4). This dataset includes: - Median values for the...

A consistent band of westerly wind flows across the Southern Hemisphere and circles the South Pole. The Southern Annular Mode (SAM) describes how this band moves, either north towards the equator (negative phase) or south towards Antarctica (positive phase). A negative phase typically causes increased westerlies, unsettled weather, and storms in New...

Extreme wave events can damage marine ecosystems and affect coastal infrastructure, ocean-based industries, and other human activities. Changing wave characteristics can have impacts on natural systems, as most coastal and near-shore biological communities can be damaged or destroyed by extreme wave action (Ummenhofer & Mehl, 2017). In another...

The data identifies five classes of land in New Zealand at risk of erosion: high landslide risk – delivery to stream high landslide risk – non-delivery to steam moderate earthflow risk severe earthflow risk gully risk Landslide erosion is the shallow (approximately 1m) and sudden failure of soil slopes during storm rainfall. Earthflow erosion is the slow...

We used NIWA’s sea-surface temperature archive, which is derived from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) satellite data it receives from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The archive provides high spatial (approximately 1km) and high temporal (approximately six-hourly in cloud-free locations) resolution estimates of...

PM10 (particulate matter less than 10 micrometres in diameter) comprises solid and liquid particles in the air. PM10 can be inhaled and the largest particles in this size fraction are deposited in the upper airways, while the smaller ones can deposit deep in the lungs. Children, the elderly, and people with existing heart or lung problems have a higher...

This csv reports melanoma registration rates, per 100,000 population, by age groups (eg 0–24 years old, 25–44 years old). New Zealand and Australia have the world’s highest rates of melanoma, the most serious type of skin cancer. Melanoma is mainly caused by exposure to ultraviolet (UV) light, usually from the sun. New Zealand has naturally high UV...

This indicator reports on six measures of lake water quality based on spatially modelled data for: chlorophyll-a total nitrogen ammoniacal nitrogen total phosphorus water clarity trophic level index (TLI3). ​ For these measures we report on: modelled median values for the period 2013–17 for selected measures, how these values compare to the National...

Heavy metals in river waters are an indicator of river water quality. We monitor a subset of rivers and streams in predominantly urban areas in Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch, and look at how these values are changing over time. This indicator shows: trends in concentrations based on measurements made at monitoring sites during the seven-year...