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System Title |
4.9 Wellington Regional Council Eco-systems Domains |
|---|---|
| Keywords | Spatial framework; ecosystem units; Wellington Region. |
| Description | This system uses a wide variety of information to delineate areas of similar
environmental pattern within the Wellington Region. Information sources include:
Eco-systems domains boundaries are delineated manually on the basis of the above information and expert knowledge. Once delineated the boundaries are digitised onto GIS. 64 different eco-systems domains have been identified for the Wellington Region (including the Wairarapa). Refinement of the eco-systems domain boundaries is an ongoing process. |
| Original Purpose | To develop an environmental classification system to enable Wellington Regional Council to better carry out its functions including resource consent evaluation. This required a fine scale system. |
| Status | The concept was developed and approximate boundaries delineated in 1998. Boundary refinement and domain descriptions are an ongoing process. |
| Organisation | Wellington Regional Council |
| Jurisdiction | Wellington Region |
| Contact person/position | Isobel Gabites Consultant |
| Address | 53 Rawhiti Rd Pukerua Bay Porirua City Phone +64 4 2399 765 Fax + 64 4 2399 765 Email igabites@xtra.co.nz |
| Available format | Unpublished maps |
| Access | Permission required from WRC |
| Geographical coverage | Wellington Region |
Operational Specifications |
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|---|---|
| Scale of Operation | Relatively fine scale |
| GIS Compatibility | The mapped boundaries of the eco-systems domains have been digitized by Wellington Regional Council. |
| Relationship between levels in the classification system | This is a nonhierarchical system. The information sources operate at the same level. |
| Contributing databases/classification systems | Contributing information includes data from climatic and soil databases. |
| Contributing database GIS compatibility | Generally not compatible except for the climate databases? |
| Relationship with other classification systems and spatial frameworks. | N/A |
| Relationship with other databases | N/A |
Current and emerging use for: |
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|---|---|
| Assisting with determining historic state/ baseline | May assist with determining historical terrestrial biodiversity baselines in the Wellington Region. |
| Assisting with determining current state/ baseline | Useful for terrestrial biodiversity in the Wellington Region. |
| Asssisting with scenario building and modelling of possible futures | Unknown |
| Risk Assesment | Unknown |
| Monitoring site selection and sample design | Potentially useful for terrestrial biodiversity and possibly land matters in the Wellington Region. |
| Aggregating and reporting data locally, regionally and/or nationally | This is not a national system and so it could not be applied nationally without further work. There could be some aggregation of eco-system domains but there does not yet appear to be a formal way to do this. |
Current use (who,level,why)
The system is being developed for Wellington Regional Council.
User friendliness/public and decision maker understanding
The system is still being developed and trialed.
Framework strengths
- The system uses many sources of information including: temperature, rainfall, frost, wind, sunshine, evapotranspiration, soil type, rock type, and vegetation(where known).
- The scale is a useful one for regional council management purposes.
- The system tries to incorporate local detail including ecological processes.
- The system is logical and seeks to provide a sense of place with its units.
Current limitations of framework
- Determining and delineating domain boundaries is a time-consuming process because it is done manually.
- The results are not repeatable
- The boundaries need further refinement
- The eco-domains need detailed descriptions
- The system only applies to Wellington Region
- It may be difficult to aggregate data?