Catchment Land Use for Environmental Sustainability (CLUES)

Purpose

CLUES is a catchment-based model developed to address “what if” scenarios under different land use at large scales. CLUES predicts the impacts of land use changes on river quality and socio-economic indicators, e.g. GDP, or employment. It also identifies sensitive and at risk catchments.

Description

CLUES is a modelling system for assessing the effects of land use change on water quality and socio-economic factors at a minimum scale of sub-catchments (~10 km2 and above). CLUES was developed for the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) in association with the Ministry for the Environment (MfE) by NIWA, in collaboration with Lincoln Ventures, Harris Consulting, AgResearch, HortResearch, Crop and Food Research, and Landcare Research.

CLUES couples a number of existing models within a GIS-platform and is provided to users as a front-end interface for ArcGIS which queries a geo-spatial database. The CLUES interface has tools which allow users to develop land use change and farm practice scenarios. The latter refer to percentate adjustments to stocking rates and contaminant yields from stock. CLUES models nitrogen and phosphorus loads in streams in specific locations under different land-use scenarios. Links to socio-economic models mean that the effects of a large-scale change in land-use, say from grazing livestock to viticulture, on local communities can also be predicted.

The CLUES project includes creating national maps of land use, soils, and pollution risk, plus extensive databases predicting nitrogen leaching for many combinations of crop, fertiliser, climate, and soils. Land-use types which can be analysed include arable, horticulture, forestry, and several sheep, beef, dairy, and deer farming variations.

The initial impetus for CLUES development came from MAF, who wanted 'what if'' scenarios to be modelled at large scales. A number of existing modelling and mapping procedures, developed by various research organisations, have been amalgamated to produce CLUES.

CLUES has also been linked to an estuarine model

Latest Version	CLUES 10 for ArcGIS 10
State of Development	Released and updated

Scope

Outcome Areas	Economic, Environmental
Management Domains	Land, Freshwater
Subdomains	Contaminant Losses
Intended End Users	Regional Council Scientist Researcher Regional Councils
Spatial Resolutions	10-100m
Spatial Extents	Regional
Spatial Dimensions	2D
Temporal Resolutions	Years
Temporal Extents	Years
Steady State or Dynamic	Steady State
Level of Integration	Economic, Environmental

Input & Output Data

Key Input Data	Macro-economic data, Land Use, Land Cover, Rainfall, Runoff, Drainage
Input Data Formats	CSV, GIS compatible files
Key Output Data	Runoff Water quality
Output Data Formats	CSV, Image File(s), GIS Compatible Files

Accessibility

Open/Closed Source	Closed Source
Licence Type	Licence appended to manual.
Licence Cost (Non Commercial)	$0
Licence Cost (Commercial)	Price negotiable
Licence Purchase Contact	Sandy Elliott CLUES@niwa.co.nz NIWA

User Information

Operating Systems	MS Windows
Software Needed	ArcGIS
User Interface	Graphical desktop
Ease of Use	Moderate
Use in Policy Process	Plan (Policy Formulation), Review (Issue Identification)
Documentation	CLUES Manual 5th Edition - June 2016 Download background reports, software and manual from NIWA ftp site
Support	Ongoing maintenance and support - contact CLUES@niwa.co.nz
Users Forum	Regular updates available upon registration to user group - contact CLUES@niwa.co.nz

Technical Considerations

Methods included for calibration and validation	See manual
Analytical Techniques	GIS
Model Structure	See manual for further detail.
Keywords	land use, water quality, socio-economic, catchment
Linkages to other Models	OVERSEER® Soil Plant Atmosphere System Model (SPASMO) Spatial Regional Regression on Watershed Attributes (SPARROW)
Links	https://www.niwa.co.nz/freshwater-and-estuaries/our-services/catchment-modelling/clues-catchment-land-use-for-environmental-sustainability-model CLUES Estuary - Plew, D., Zeldis, J., Shankar, U., Elliot,S. (2015) CLUES Estuary – a tool for predicting estuary water quality. Australasian Coasts & Ports Conference, Auckland, New Zealand.
Key References	Semadeni-Davies, A.; Elliott, S. and Shankar, U. (2014): How CLUES can help in Managing Catchment Nutrient Limits. NIWA Paper Semadeni-Davies, A., Shankar, U. and Elliott, S. (2012): CLUES 10 Installation and Interface: Addendum to the CLUES 3.1 User Manual. Prepared for the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. NIWA Client Report: AKL2012-007. Semadeni-Davies, A.; Elliott, S. and Shankar, U. (2011): The CLUES Project: Tutorial manual for CLUES 3.0. Commissioned by Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, NIWA Client Report: HAM2011-003 Elliott, A.H, et, al,.(2016): A national-scale GIS-based system for modelling impacts of land use on water quality. Environmental Modelling & Software, Volume 86,Pages 131-144. Woods, R.; Elliott, S.; Shankar, U.; Bidwell, V.; Harris, S.; Wheeler, D.; Clothier, B.; Green, S.; Hewitt, A.; Gibb, R. & Parfitt, R. (2006). The CLUES Project: Predicting the Effects of Land use on Water Quality – Stage II. Prepared for Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry by NIWA, Client Report: CHC2006–096 Monaghan, R.M.; Semadeni-Davies, A.; Muirhead, R.W. Elliott S. and Shankar U. (2010) Land use and land management risks to water quality in Southland. AgResearch Client Report, prepared for Environment Southland. McBride, G.B.; Rys, G.; Elliott, S.; Shankar, U.; Semadeni-Davies, A. (2008). "CLUES: Do we have any idea about the nutrient impacts of land use change at the catchment level?" Fertiliser & Lime Research Centre, Massey University, 21st Annual Workshop: Carbon and nutrient management in agriculture: Addressing the hard questions. 13–15 February.

Associated Case Studies