11 August 2011

New Zealand’s Regional Councils and Unitary Authorities welcome the Ministry of Science and Innovation’s announcement that the Government will invest $1 million a year into a four-year Land Cover Research Programme that will update the country’s land cover database.

Gary Bedford, Director-Environment Quality for the Taranaki Regional Council and Chairman of the combined councils' Science Advisory Group, says: “The decision will be well supported by all councils as the current Land Cover Database is a nationally important source of data for councils to monitor and manage land cover, land use and land use change.

"An updated database will be valuable to support council policy setting and for State of the Environment monitoring and reporting.

"Technology has advanced considerably in recent years and we are pleased that Landcare Research is able to apply advance satellite technology along with new geospatial mapping techniques to provide a tool that will be even more useful to councils than the previous versions," says Mr Bedford.

"Water resources, soil and biodiversity are under increasing pressure from land use intensification throughout New Zealand. Up-to-date and accurate land cover data will provide improved and welcome information to drive many of the models that council staff rely on to help them make decisions.”

Read the Government's announcement

ENDS

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