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System Title |
5.3 Environmental Council/Thompson Wetland Types |
|---|---|
| Keywords | Wetland classification; inland wetlands; coastal and marine wetlands |
| Description | This was the first New Zealand wetland classification system that included
all the following hydroclasses:
This classification system is unequally developed. Palustrine and estuarine wetlands are most finely divided. There are no subdivisions for riverine, lacustrine and geothermal hydroclasses. |
| Original Purpose | This classification system was designed for The New Zealand Wetland Management Policy (prepared by the New Zealand Environmental Council) and the database Wetlands of Ecological and Regional Interest (WERI). |
| Status | Developed in 1983. |
| Organisation | Department of Conservation (since 1987) |
| Jurisdiction | New Zealand |
| Contact person/position | Dr. Keith Thompson Senior lecturer |
| Address | University of Waikato Department of Biological Sciences Private Bag 3105 Hamilton Phone +64 7 856 2889 (direct) Fax +64 7 838 4324 Email: keithomc@waikato.ac.nz |
| Available format | Published reports |
| Access | Freely available |
| Geographical coverage | New Zealand |
Operational Specifications |
|
|---|---|
| Scale of Operation | Variable |
| GIS Compatibility | Depends on accurate location data |
| Relationship between levels in the classification system | This is an incompletely hierarchical system. While the overall approach is a hierarchical one the system has been unevenly developed and so the categories at any one level are not equivalent. |
| Contributing databases/classification systems | N/A |
| Contributing database GIS compatibility | N/A |
| Relationship with other classification systems and spatial frameworks. | It has been used in the development of the UNEP GRID wetland classification. |
| Relationship with other databases | It is the classification system used by the Wetlands of Ecological and Regional Importance (WERI) Database. The WERI Database contains more than 3000 New Zealand wetland sites classified according to this classification system. |
Current and emerging use for: |
|
|---|---|
| Assisting with determining historic state/ baseline | Limited |
| Assisting with determining current state/ baseline | It can be used to help describe the current state of wetlands. This would be most useful for categories in the classification system that have been finely subdivided. |
| Asssisting with scenario building and modelling of possible futures | No |
| Monitoring site selection and sample design | It provides a basis for stratifying a representative sampling network for palustrine and coastal/marine wetlands. This would not be appropriate for other wetland classes. |
| Aggregating and reporting data locally, regionally and/or nationally | It provides a logical basis to aggregate up from type to wetland class to hydroclass. As there are differences in the amount of subdivision in the hydroclasses it is not possible to aggregate across the table. For example it is not possible to aggregate information on shrublands in different hydroclasses. |
Current use (who,level,why)
This system is used to classify sites in the WERI database. It is used as well as the Ramsar system to classify New Zealand wetlands of international significance.
User friendliness/public and decision maker understanding
It is generally easy to understand.System strengths
- It appears comprehensive because it includes all aquatic hydro systems.
- The categories can be translated to other classification systems. This allows international comparison.
- The system is simple.
- It has been applied to all significant palustrine wetlands in New Zealand and a few of the other hydroclasses.
Current limitations of framework
- The different levels in the classification system are not consistently developed. While palustrine and intertidal estuarine communities have been subdivided down to wetland type level, there is no subdivision of riverine, lacustrine or geothermal hydroclasses.
- The boundaries between some hydro systems and some wetland classes are ambiguous.
References
Environmental Council, 1983. Wetlands: a diminishing resource. Water and Soil Miscellaneous Publication No. 58.