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Smarter Targeting of Erosion Control (STEC) News

  1. Modelling fine sediment dynamics in rivers to improve our understanding of impacts on streambed habitat and water quality

    Most modelling of catchment erosion and sediment has focused on annual river loads linked to catchment erosion rates. However, to interpret the water quality impacts of (fine) suspended sediment and the degradation of streambed habitat by deposited fines, we need to understand the dynamics of sedim...

  2. A co-developed evaluation framework to assess the effectiveness and performance of erosion and sediment control mitigation

    Despite a long history of erosion management in New Zealand using soil conservation plants such as poplars and willows, and more recently a range of techniques and products to manage soil erosion from construction and earthworks, there is little quantitative information on the effectiveness and perf...

  3. How will climate change affect erosion and suspended sediment loads across New Zealand?

    Understanding the potential impact of climate change on erosion and suspended sediment loads is critical for developing catchment management plans that achieve land productivity and water quality objectives under future climate. The response of erosion and sediment loads to climate change can be exp...

  4. STEC’s international collaborators: a key part of our implementation pathway

    STEC is fortunate to have several leading international collaborators as part of the programme. Their roles include student supervision and involvement in both collaborative and self-led research. However, one of their key functions is to help the programme and its researchers connect to the wider s...

  5. What’s happening with our iwi partners

    Mā mua ka kite a muri, mā muri ka ora a mua
    Those who lead give sight to those who follow, those who follow give life to those who lead While COVID has made it difficult in the past 2 years for kanohi ki te kanohi hui between STEC researchers and our iwi partners, things have been happening. While t...

  6. Stormflow water quality and suspended sediment measurements in the Manawatū catchment– towards integrated modelling

    Many erosion-sediment studies conducted round the world, including in New Zealand, have focused on sediment quantity in which annual loads from catchments are estimated. However, sediment quality is as important as quantity for predicting environmental behaviour and effects of suspended particulate ...

  7. Policy-relevant stated preference estimates of national water quality values in New Zealand

    New Zealand’s freshwater is critically important for agriculture, recreation, cultural practices, and other activities and productive resources. New Zealand has had many national and regional efforts to improve water quality and received international attention in 2017 by declaring the Whanganui Riv...

  8. Getting to the core of the problem: unlocking flood histories in catchments

    Floodplain coring is being used to unlock sediment archives in the Whanganui, Manawatū and Oreti catchments, as part of Imogen Doyle’s PhD project within the STEC programme. The understanding of flood magnitudes is limited by the short history and poor spatial density of the instrumental record. Flo...

  9. LiDAR data enables modelling of slope stability at the scale of individual trees

    The STEC programme continues to progress method development aimed at quantifying how effective trees are at reducing landslide erosion and sediment-loss at a range of spatial scales.

  10. Rain radar improves understanding of shallow landslide occurrence

    Manaaki Whenua - Landcare Research continues to develop and apply quantitative approaches to better understand factors influencing the occurrence of rainfall-initiated shallow landslides as part of the Smarter Targeting of Erosion Control (STEC) MBIE research programme.