LENZ News

From July 1st 2009 LENZ has undergone some changes to its funding and data supply, from now on LENZ data in shapefile format will be available at http://koordinates.com/ for free download, and LENZ Classification grids (in ESRI format) will available at cost of supply from Manaaki Whenua Press, go to Products - Classification Layers for purchase.

Note: Landcare Research recommends using LENZ in ESRI grid format. This was the original data format that LENZ was classified in.

The LENZ Technical Guide is now available as a PDF. To download a copy, go to the LENZ Technical Guide Product page

S-MAP is a new project with the goal of providing a consistent national coverage of soil class and attribute data that meet a new national standard. S-map is the response to user demands for access to better soil information to underpin a range of conservation and natural resources management activities, including tools such as LENZ.

• S-Map Features
  1. Digital soils maps (i.e. as GIS layers)
  2. Soils database (rather than reports)
     Gives the ability to link soil attribute data to digital soil maps and depict them spatially
  3. Uncertainty estimates for soil attributes
  4. Focus on soil classes & attributes
  5. Single, unified national soil map legend
     Uses "families" and "siblings" to retain links to well-known soil series
• S-Map Process
  1. Flat to rolling terrain - mainly conventional methods based on air-photo interpretation and free survey techniques will be used
  2. Hilly to steep terrain - soil–landscape models supplemented by other spatial information, literature, and new sampling will be used.
• S-Map Progress
  1. Providing basic data in relatively dry eastern Greywacke mountains, Motueka Catchment, Canterbury, North Otago plains, and Northland
  2. Providing information products that interpret the basic data, such as occur in Topoclimate South.

For more information, read the S-Map article in the March 2005 issue of Soil Horizons:
www.landcareresearch.co.nz/publications/newsletters/soilhorizons/index.asp

S-Map website:
www.landcareresearch.co.nz/databases/smap.asp

S-Map Preliminary Specifications:
www.landcareresearch.co.nz/databases/Smapspec.pdf

New Zealand's indigenous cover: recent changes and biodiversity protection needs

This recent Landcare Research report identifies New Zealand’s land environments that are most vulnerable to further loss of biodiversity as a consequence of past and recent loss of indigenous cover and poor legal protection. While high elevation land environments are relatively intact and well protected, most coastal, lowland, and montane land environments have been largely cleared of their indigenous cover, and little of what remains of their indigenous ecosystems is legally protected. The much-reduced and highly modified areas of indigenous cover remaining in these ‘threatened environments’ support a disproportionately large percentage of New Zealand’s most seriously threatened species, habitats, and ecosystems.  These are the places at most significant risk of irreversible loss or decline, where our opportunities to retain the full range of New Zealand’s distinctive biodiversity are retreating most rapidly. 

On this basis, the report recommends a five-category threat classification for land environments – and explains why remaining indigenous vegetation in these threatened environments is likely to be highly modified, but nonetheless critically important for biodiversity.  The report goes on to explain the likely changes in risk to indigenous biodiversity resulting from historical (pre-human to 1996/97) and recent (1996/97 to 2001/02) changes in land cover across New Zealand ’s land environments and political districts. The report also describes how land environment threat categories can assist in the assessment of significance by improving the objectivity of the assessment of representativeness.

A simple table allow users to access information on how much of an environment currently remains in indigenous cover, and how much is protected. The table can be linked to spatial data sets within a GIS to map the locations of threatened environments from district to national levels.

A PDF of the report and a table classifying land environments according to threat category are available on the downloads page:

www.landcareresearch.co.nz/services/infomatics/LENZ/downloads.asp

National biodiversity status project 

In mid 2004 Landcare Research completed work for the Ministry for the Environment, Department of Conservation, and Local Government New Zealand on the national status of legal protection & condition. The work compiled a national dataset of legal protection that included Crown conservation estate, Nga Whenua Rahui covenants, Nature Heritage Fund covenants, and Queen Elizabeth II National Trust covenants. The work used Land Cover Database 1 (LCDB 2 was not yet available) as a surrogate for condition. The work reported level of protection and condition by region and LENZ Level II. An update to that first report is already in progress.

A PDF of the report is available on the downloads page:

www.landcareresearch.co.nz/services/infomatics/LENZ/downloads.asp

LENZ Classification & Underlying Data: ASCII files available

ASCII files of the LENZ Classification and Underlying Data layers are now available for downloading from the LENZ Member Area. ASCII data files can be imported into most GIS systems.

To download the new files, follow these steps:

1. Browse to the LENZ Members website
2. Enter in your user name and password
3. On the Member's Home Page, click "Product Updates" in the navigation bar
4. Key in either the Classification or Underlying Data CD keycode
   (found on the back of the CD case)
5. Download the file(s) you need.

If you have any questions or problems, contact your LENZ regional contact

LENZ Classification - Shapefiles & MapInfo Format

LENZ Classification Layers are now available in the following formats:

• LENZ Levels I-IV - ESRI Shapefiles

• LENZ Levels I & II - MapInfo

To download the new files, follow these steps:

1. Browse to the LENZ Members website
2. Enter in your user name and password
3. On Member's Home Page, click "Product Updates" in the navigation bar
4. Key in the Classification CD keycode (found on the back of the CD case)
5. Download the file(s) you need.

Note that the download speed is capped to avoid overloading the servers, so please be patient.

Many thanks to Simon Nitz at Napier City Council for help with the MapInfo conversions. We are working with Simon to get the rest of the LENZ data converted to MapInfo format. We are also working to make LENZ available in other formats (Genamap, GeoMedia).

10 Oct 2004

LENZ Regional Workshops  - Summary Information

Landcare Research and the TFBIS Programme sponsored a series of 16 LENZ regional workshops from 27 July to 10 September. Over 300 people representing 100 organisations attended the free workshops. Information from the workshops, including presentations and guidebooks to download, are here.

10 Oct 2004

LENZ Discussion List

An email discussion list for LENZ has been set up. To subscribe to the list, go to 
http://info.massey.landcareresearch.co.nz/mailman/listinfo.cgi/lenz

01 May 2004

LENZ Regional Workshops Announced

Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research and the Terrestrial and Freshwater Biodiversity Information System (TFBIS) Programme invite you to attend a workshop on Land Environments of New Zealand (LENZ). The workshops will provide information on the ideas and research underpinning LENZ, development of the underlying data and classification layers, LENZ strengths & limitations, and usage guidelines.

For more information on the workshops, download the LENZ Regional Workshop Flyer.

01 Oct 2003

LENZ Data CDs available for purchase

The LENZ Classification CDs and Underlying Data CDs are now available for purchase via the LENZ web site. The CDs cost $350 each for Public Good purposes and $1500 each for Commercial purposes (or $2500 for the set).

 To order the CDs, go here.

19 Jun 2003

LENZ is launched!

On 19 June 2003 the Ministry for the Environment, Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research, and David Bateman officially launched Land Environments of New Zealand (LENZ). For more information, see About LENZ .