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Enhancing soils, water & land

Soils are critical to our productive and natural landscapes, and their health is central to society’s well-being.

Our work enables New Zealand to:

  • use land more sustainably
  • he whenua koiora (better use resources for intergenerational well-being)
  • better protect and restore land and soil resources
  • reduce the impact of land use on freshwater resources.

One of the greatest challenges facing regional and national agencies, and the food and fibre sector, is the integrated management of land and water to provide sustainable production, while simultaneously protecting downstream ecosystems and supporting diverse community and iwi values. Soils hold more water than our rivers, lakes, and aquifers. They are the pathways for pollutants from land use, and the source of sediment entering waterways from erosion. Soils are being lost by erosion from productive lands at unsustainable rates.

Our work provides understanding of soils, capability to manage the effects of land use, and confidence to deploy mitigation approaches.

In this section

Erosion & sediment

We undertake a diversity of research and consultancy projects including fundamental understanding of erosion processes, landscape dynamics and response in a changing environment, erosion and sediment modelling, and tools for control and mitigation of soil and land degradation.

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Land & soil resources

Soils, landscapes and natural resources such as water underpin natural and managed ecosystems. They provide ecosystem and productive services on which we rely for agriculture and forestry and act as a platform for communities, infrastructure, and the national identity on which our culture and tourist trade is based.

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Soil & ecosystem health

The ongoing capacity of soil ecosystems to maintain the services they provide is fundamental to our economic, cultural, social and environmental well-being.

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Soil, water & land news

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