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Innovation articles

  1. S-map goes from strength to strength

    Over the past 15 years S-map has transformed soil survey in New Zealand, from a mix of hard-copy soil maps and bulletins and a few regional endeavours based on old-fashioned informatics tools such as spreadsheets, into a robust, nationally consistent information system supplying soil information to ...

  2. Sharing our knowledge abroad

    For decades, soil scientists from Manaaki Whenua have been visiting Pacific Island countries and territories (PICTs) to collect soil samples and map soil patterns. This work is vital to help decision-makers improve their soils knowledge and land management practices.

  3. Building whakawhanaungatanga in Waikato and the Bay of Plenty

    For Māori, elements of ecosystems and their linkages form the basis of whakapapa (ancestry) and kaitiakitanga (guardianship/management) principles, and are crucial to taonga, traditions, health, and well-being. Over time, the development and intensification of land has resulted in degraded ecosystem...

  4. GIS for Māori land managers

    Iwi and conservation groups throughout the country can now track and plan the conservation progress of native taonga species in their rohe thanks to a new free software package developed by Manaaki Whenua.

  5. Tracking climate change awareness among rural decision-makers

    Over the coming decades changes in climate are likely to have serious effects on New Zealand’s productive land environments. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) projects a 0.8°C increase in temperature by 2040 for New Zealand, as well as more extreme rainfall events and increased dr...

  6. Decision-making in freshwater management – a social learning approach

    Scientists have long recognised that one of their biggest challenges is how to translate their recommendations into lasting management and behaviour changes among stakeholders. Individuals or people working in organisations may not be able to make changes easily, owing to a combination of norms and ...

  7. National environmental reporting – our science behind the headline reports

    The recent increase in environmental regulations in New Zealand, including the National Policy Statements for Freshwater Management (2013, 2017, 2019) and the recent National Policy Statement for Highly Productive Land, is increasing demand for monitoring and assessing the impacts of land use on our...

  8. A new national soil carbon monitoring system for agricultural land

    Every year, under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement, New Zealand is obliged to report its national human-produced (anthropogenic) greenhouse gas emissions and removals. With average soil carbon stocks in New Zealand’s agricultural soils estimated at ab...

  9. Nitrous oxide and methane emissions: measurement and mitigation

    A renewed New Zealand Government focus on climate change in the past 3 years has sought to identify future research needs to address gaps in greenhouse gas monitoring and mitigation, thereby improving New Zealand’s national inventory for international reporting and mitigation technologies to meet pr...

  10. DNA sequencing unveils past environments

    Manaaki Whenua has a long history of using microfossils to reconstruct past environments. Information about the past helps us to improve our understanding of how current ecosystems function, and provides pre-human baseline information, which can inform conservation and restoration planning.