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Limitations of the land indicators

Land use indicator

The land use indicator looks at land cover and other measurements to report on how land is used. However, this is not always straightforward. For example, an area classified as ‘pastoral land cover’ can be used for sheep and beef farming and arable cropping at the same time. Areas with natural land cover, for example native forest, may also have a number of uses, such as recreation, conservation and tourism. Also, the uses of an area of land can change throughout the year.

Mixed or seasonally changing land uses, and the uses of natural land cover areas are not considered by the land use indicator.

Soil health data

Soil health data has not been collected from all regions in New Zealand. However, the data reported by the indicator is considered to be representative of most land uses and soil types. The soil health indicator assesses soil degradation and depletion. It is not a measurement of localised soil contamination.

Soil intactness

This indicator measures the risk of erosion rather than actual erosion.

This indicator measures the risk of mass-movement, such as earth-flow or landslips, but not the risk of other erosion types, such as wind or in-stream erosion.

While this indicator focuses on the erosion risk of hill-country pastoral land, there are a number of methods to manage erosion risk, including on pastoral land.

 

This information has come from the latest national state of the environment report Environment New Zealand 2007.

 

Last updated: December 2007