A comprehensive mussel spat questionnaire, which will be used to survey mussel spat collectors and harvesters in Kaitaia and the Marlborough Sounds region. These surveys will be conducted through personal and telephone interviews, as well as online questionnaires, distributed and promoted through email. The aim of this work is to gauge and utilise the knowledge, opinions and experiences of people that have been or are involved in mussel spat aquaculture to direct and focus areas of potential future research at NIWA.

The Stock Exclusion Low Slope Land 2020 layer identifies areas of "low slope land" as defined in the Resource Management (Stock Exclusion) Regulations 2020. The layer shows the land parcels, or part parcels, defined as low slope land. These areas have a mean slope is less than or equal to 10 degrees. Parcels with a parcel intent of "ROAD" are excluded. Areas of lakes, ponds, settlements and urban parkland, as defined in Land Cover Database 5, are also excluded. Areas of low-slope grassland and annual cropland within high-slope parcels are also included in the Stock Exclusion Low Slope Land extent.

The feasibility of shifting the consent area for marine farm 8049 in Oyster Bay, Queen Charlotte Sound to deeper water was assessed in this report. Sampling of the new site and nearby reef was conducted using a remote-operated camera (ROV) to attain photographs and video transects, as well as an acoustic dropper current profiler (ADCP) to measure currents in the ocean. Mathematical modelling was also incorporated (DEPOMOD modelling). Results showed that depths were suitable for the development of a finfish farm, and the farm would be beyond any significant depositional footprint if established. Although greater production was likely to result in enrichment effects to the benthic communities which may result in a replacement of existing benthic species by opportunistic species.

NIWA reviewed an assessment of environmental impacts of salmon farms at Te Pangu Bay, Tory Channel (U090841) and Clay Point, Tory Channel (U060926), prepared by the Cawthron Institute for The New Zealand King Salmon Co Ltd (NZKS), and proposed variations to the Environmental Quality Management System (EQMS) for the farms.

NIWA was contracted by Property and Land Management Services (PALMS) LTD to assess phytoplankton depletion due to the extension of marine farms 8431, 8432 and 8433 in East Bay, Port Underwood. This was achieved by running a hydrodynamic model over a period of 100 days (11 April to 20 July 2005) and was validated by the associated ADCP data. Results revealed that the overall depletion footprint was very similar to the existing-farms case, which was expected given the modest increase in the total effective number of mussels from the extension.

Tidal currents were measured by a month-long deployment of an ADCP seaward of the existing farm in Te Pangu over a neap-spring cycle. Results showed that while water flow was greater close to the mouth of Te Pangu, recirculation and eddies generated by adjacent headlands suggested there would be no significant advantages in moving net pens within the near vicinity once drag from the net pens was considered.

Water column monitoring at the end of Stage 1 for mussel farm MPE921 (Site 8572) in April and May 2011 estimated phytoplankton concentrations from fluorescence and chlorophyll a measurements.

The New Zealand Fundamental Soil Layer originates from a relational join of features from two databases: the New Zealand Land Resource Inventory (NZLRI), and the National Soils Database (NSD). The NZLRI is a national polygon database of physical land resource information, including a soil unit. Soil is one in an inventory of five physical factors (including rock, slope, erosion, and vegetation) delineated by physiographic polygons at approximately 1:50,000 scale. The NSD is a point database of soil physical, chemical, and mineralological characteristics for over 1500 soil profiles nationally. A relational join between the NZLRI dominant soil and derivative tables from the NSD was the means by which 14 important soil attributes were attached to the NZLRI polygons. Some if these attributes originate from exact matches with NSD records, while others derive from matches to similar soils or professional estimates.The polygon set used in this layer is equivalent to NZLRI Version 3.1, dissolved on soil. Soil attribute data derive from regional soil legends and the NSD as at 1999 Incidental error correction has occurred as necessaryAccuracy of soil attribute values is dependant on the variability of the soil unit over its entire geographic extent and the origin of the estimate (recorded in the _EST fields)Polygons derive from the multi-factor, homogenous unit area mapping of the NZLRI. This method often delineates features at a lower resolution than a single factor map of equivalent scale.While NZLRI mapping scale remained constant (at 1:63,360 and later 1:50,000), polygon resolution increased in detail as the survey progressed, and was variably constrained by the quality of source information available to the mapperhttp://lris.scinfo.org.nz/layer/136/ & https://lris.scinfo.org.nz/layer/48136-fsl-north-island-all-attributes/metadata/

Field- Descriptionfor REC variablesNZReach-Unique national identifier. This is the data field that is used to join to other REC1 datasets where "NZREACH" is the unique identifier.Order-Stream orderField descriptionsfor HUC1. Runoff is represented by threefields"Localrunoff_mm_yr""Runoff_mm_yr""Flow_L_s"Localrunoff_mm_yr is the predicted mean annual runoff in mm/year from the local land area that drains to an REC reachRunoff_mm_yr is the predicted mean annual runoff in mm/year from the entire upstream catchment that drains to an REC reachFlow_L_s is the predicted mean flow in L/s from the entire upstream catchment that drains to an REC reachThese data are those published in Woods, R. A., J. Hendrikx, R. D. Henderson and A. B. Tait (2006). “Mean Flow Hydrology of New Zealand Rivers.” Journal of Hydrology (NZ) 45(2): 95-110.The research was funded through a FRST-funded project "Land Use Intensification: Sustainable Management of Water Quantity and Quality (C01X0304)"2. The fourflood statistics are calculated for every reach in the River Environment Classification network. These flood statistics were obtained for each REC reach by finding the centroid of the catchment that drains to every reach, and then looking up the mapped McKerchar and Pearson value at the centroid. For catchments draining the Southern Alps to the southeast from the Waimakariri to Fiordland, an upstream searching algorithm (which finds the reach with catchment rain close to the catchment average, and uses that location to obtain a value of the parameter) was used to mimic as far as practical McKerchar and Pearson's description at p17.The four flood statistics are:q_a_0_8_reach (mean annual flood divided by area to the power of 0.8 - has units of m3/s / (sqkm)^0.8 )q100_reach (ratio of 100-year flood to mean annual flood - dimensionless)Qbar_reach_cumecs (in units of m3/s)Q100_reach_cumecs (in units of m3/s)McKerchar, A. I. and C. P. Pearson (1989). Flood Frequency in New Zealand. Hydrology Centre Publication No. 20, DSIR Division of Water Sciences, Christchurch, N.Z. p87. Pearson, C. P. and A. I. McKerchar (1989). “Flood Estimation - A Revised Procedure.” Transactions of the Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand 16(2/CE): 59-65. 3.The fields in this directory are the result of development of a low flow model for New Zealand.Thefourfields in the file are named"Areaa", "Qla_nmps","Qla_lps""RivName"Areaa is the accumulated catchment area draining to the reach.Qla_nmps is the predicted 7-day mean annual specific low flow from the catchment area draining to the reach, expressed as nm/s, or l/s/km^2.Qla_lps is the predicted 7-day mean annual low flow from the catchment area draining to the reach, expressed as L/s.RivName is the name of the waterway, (not all waterways are named).The fields describing NZmonthlyflowratios are the result of joining the island ratios as described below, to the REC by CSoF classes, for each island. It contains the following fields:Jan, Feb,Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug,Sep, Oct, Nov, DecThe values Jan, Feb etc are the ratios of monthly flow to mean flow.If you know that the long term mean flow of a Cool Dry Lowland river in the North Island is 20 m3/s, then this data predicts that the long-term mean flow in January is 20*0.16=3.2 m3/sField description for BookerBooker2014 contains three columns. These are predictions from the random forest method as described in Booker and Woods (2014), with mean daily flow data collated March 2013. MeanFlowCumecs = mean flow (m3s-1)MALFCumecs = 7-day mean annual low flow (m3s-1)MeanAnnualFloodCumecs = Mean Annual flood as calculated from mean daily flows (not instantaneous flows) (m3s-1)Booker, D.J.; Woods, R.A. 2014: Comparing and combining physically-based and empirically-based approaches for estimating the hydrology of ungauged catchments. Journal of Hydrology DOI: 10.1016/j.jhydrol.2013.11.007.

The New Zealand Fundamental Soil Layer originates from a relational join of features from two databases: the New Zealand Land Resource Inventory (NZLRI), and the National Soils Database (NSD). The NZLRI is a national polygon database of physical land resource information, including a soil unit. Soil is one in an inventory of five physical factors (including rock, slope, erosion, and vegetation) delineated by physiographic polygons at approximately 1:50,000 scale. The NSD is a point database of soil physical, chemical, and mineralological characteristics for over 1500 soil profiles nationally. A relational join between the NZLRI dominant soil and derivative tables from the NSD was the means by which 14 important soil attributes were attached to the NZLRI polygons. Some if these attributes originate from exact matches with NSD records, while others derive from matches to similar soils or professional estimates.The polygon set used in this layer is equivalent to NZLRI Version 3.1, dissolved on soil. Soil attribute data derive from regional soil legends and the NSD as at 1999 Incidental error correction has occurred as necessaryAccuracy of soil attribute values is dependant on the variability of the soil unit over its entire geographic extent and the origin of the estimate (recorded in the _EST fields)Polygons derive from the multi-factor, homogenous unit area mapping of the NZLRI. This method often delineates features at a lower resolution than a single factor map of equivalent scale.While NZLRI mapping scale remained constant (at 1:63,360 and later 1:50,000), polygon resolution increased in detail as the survey progressed, and was variably constrained by the quality of source information available to the mapperhttp://lris.scinfo.org.nz/layer/136/ & https://lris.scinfo.org.nz/layer/48137-fsl-south-island-all-attributes/