National Outcome 2: Sustainable Management of Land and Water
Achieve the sustainable use of land resources and their ecosystem services across catchments and sectors.
Relevant national goals:
- By 2025, New Zealand has achieved a 20% improvement in key indicators of land and water resources at farm and catchment scales (OLWNSC).
- The quality of our natural resource base improves over time, while sustaining the growth needed from key sectors to meet our 40% exports to GDP target (Business Growth Agenda).
- New Zealand realises the potential of Māori-owned natural resources (He Kai Kei Aku Ringa,
The Crown-Māori Economic Growth Partnership). - New Zealand’s fresh water is well governed and sustainably managed (Natural Resources Sector).
Background
New Zealand’s land resources sustain primary sector production, provide habitat for our valued biodiversity, and provide ecosystem services (e.g. clean water, fertile soils and the aesthetic and intrinsic values upon which New Zealand’s economy, tourism and identity are based).
The demand for environmental information and new tools to support effective management of land resources in New Zealand is both urgent and growing. Some of our most important natural resources have been over‐allocated or have reached critical environmental thresholds as a result of unsustainable land-use practices.
Effective management of land resources requires improved knowledge of their variability and change over time and across catchments and landscapes (natural, managed and urban), their response to human impacts, and potential limits for land-use intensification and other development. New and improved tools are required to meet these challenges. Such knowledge supports sustainable land use and resource allocation, improves the economic and environmental performance of the primary sector, and supports the provision of wider ecosystem services.
Outcome 2 MBIE Strategic Funding
Non-MBIE Strategic Funding excludes BioHeritage Challenge funds dispersed to other organisations.
Since 2012/13, MBIE Strategic Funding has increased to this Outcome area to meet the growing demand for information on the status of and pressures on New Zealand’s land and to boost research on tools, methods and technologies to support more sustainable land use. In addition, some MBIE Strategic Funding was realigned from Outcome 3 to this Outcome to integrate research on soil carbon and nitrogen with other soils research (previously, specifically focused on greenhouse gas measurement).
In 2015/16, we increased funding to support remote sensing and land use research to meet demand for cost-effective, large-scale environmental information and accurate data on land use and land-use impacts to support more sustainable land use, and setting and meeting water quality limits as part of the water management reforms. In 2016/17, we continue to scale up our nationally-leading soils and sediment research, as well as invest in new technologies and approaches to advance soil and land resource mapping, and deliver this in more effective ways to users. We have also increased our support for research of high relevance to Māori agribusinesses, including those active in the native honeys business.
These shifts are well aligned with the National Statement of Science Investment directions of improving New Zealand’s environmental evidence base, and our understanding of environmental opportunities and limits to underpin economic goals, and with balancing productivity and sustainability.
We expect to align some MBIE Strategic Funding to the Our Land and Water National Science Challenge once the major research directions for the Challenge have been determined.
MBIE Strategic Funding of Databases and Collections and associated infrastructure:
The following Collections and information systems provide underpinning information in support of sustainable land and water management practices:
- Land Resource Information System (LRIS), which comprises the New Zealand Land Resource Inventory (NZLRI) and the National Soils Database (NSD).
Impact 2.1
The status, trend and resilience of land resources, their ecosystem services and its pressures are understood and support sustainable management of land and water
16/17 Research Focus Areas
- Improve the relevance, accuracy and credibility of national land and soils information by
- extending digital soil mapping techniques to improve coverage of hilly and complex terrain
- refining and generating new land and soils data and indicators to support national reporting
- innovating in remote sensing, ‘big data’ analysis techniques and modelling
- improving the information infrastructure for land and soils data, including data standards.
Impact Key Performance Indicators:
- 70–80% MBIE Strategic Funding of research outputs are on-track or completed.
- 80–90% of Research Focus Area key research initiatives success measures achieved (3-year rolling average, noting that, as a new measure, it will be only partially reported in the first two years).
Impact 2.2
Land and water resources are sustainably managed through the use of new and improved tools.
16/17 Research Focus Areas
- Improve knowledge about the pressures on New Zealand’s land resources and ecosystem services by
- better understanding soil C and N dynamics and leaching and microbial interactions
- better quantifying the impact of agricultural and irrigation intensification on soils and ecosystems
- new approaches to assess land resources, including erosion and sediment susceptibility.
- Support more sustainable land and water management practices, policy and regulation by
- extending coverage, functionality and interoperability of online soils information (S-map)
- developing new approaches and tools to support Māori agribusiness and Māori land development
- improving tools to manage and mitigate contaminants such as sediment, microbes and metals
- quantifying the benefits of diverse pastures by evaluating soil functions and resource-use efficiency
- refining novel soil–water devices to increase water and energy efficiency.
Impact Key Performance Indicators:
- 70-80% MBIE Strategic Funding of research outputs are on-track or completed.
- 80-90% of Research Focus Area key research initiatives success measures achieved (3-year rolling average, noting that, as a new measure, it will be only partially reported in the first two years).
Outcome Key Performance Indicators
Measurement of progress towards Outcome 2 is informed by a suite of agency KPIs to which Landcare Research Impacts contribute:
- Improving trends in soil health (Statistics NZ/MfE)
- Reducing soil erosion risk (Statistics NZ/MfE)
- An increasing number of monitored sites showing maintained or improved water quality (MfE)
- Productivity of Māori assets equals national averages by 2040 (He Kai Kei Aku Ringa, The Crown-Māori Economic Growth Partnership)
- Increasing GDP from land-based primary production (Statistics NZ data)