The Threatened Environment Classification is an interactive GIS tool which helps planners identify and set a value on New Zealand‘s threatened environments. Landcare Research has produced a Threatened Environments tool for identifying environments with much reduced indigenous ecosystems. The tool was developed with end-users including Department of Conservation (DOC), Ministry for the Environment (MfE), Land Information New Zealand, regional councils and the QEII National Trust. Threatened Environments is an add-on to LENZ (Land Environments of New Zealand), an MfE funded software product by Landcare Research that combines information on land environments, land cover, protected areas and similar information at a range of scales, from national to local. Threatened Environments shows at a glance how much of any environment remains in native cover and how much is protected – key criteria in determining the significance of remaining indigenous vegetation. It also assigns environments to one of five categories ranging from acutely threatened to not threatened. The tool can display loss and protection statistics for any area or point, assess priorities for protection and conservation management, and report on biodiversity achievements.
The Threatened Environment Classification Tool was created to make LENZ (Land Environments of New Zealand) accessible to key biodiversity managers. It is an extension to LENZ that enables users to identify land environments in which remaining indigenous biodiversity is substantially reduced and poorly protected. It provides a consistent, objective and readily accessible tool to inform:
| Latest Version | 1 |
|---|---|
| State of Development | Please Select |
| Current Development Activity | There is no guarantee that there will be an update to the Threatened Environment Classification. It cannot be repeated in the future unless further full national updates of the land cover database are produced using satellite imagery taken over as short a time period as possible (e.g., single summer). At present, there is no commitment from national agencies to produce a land cover database to update and improve upon LCDB2 for herbaceous cover classes such as indigenous grasslands. The Threatened Environment Classification may be improved by updating the version of the Protected Area Network of New Zealand, including the valid information on protected areas provided by local authorities. Again, such updates will depend upon funding from, and coordination among, government agencies. |
| Outcome Areas | Economic, Environmental |
|---|---|
| Management Domains | Land, Biodiversity |
| Subdomains | Ecosystem/Habitat, Native biodiversity & Biodiversity Loss |
| Intended End Users | Regional Councils, central government agencies, trusts involved in conservation, distric councils and unitary authorities, ecological consultancies and environmental NGOs. |
| Spatial Resolutions | 10-100m |
| Spatial Extents | National |
| Spatial Dimensions | 2D |
| Temporal Resolutions | Not applicable |
| Temporal Extents | Not applicable |
| Steady State or Dynamic | Steady State |
| Level of Integration | Environmental, Economic |
| Key Input Data | Land Cover • Protected Area Network NZ (PAN-NZ) & Land Environments New Zealand (LENZ) |
|---|---|
| Input Data Formats | ASCI, GIS compatible files, Test File(s) |
| Key Output Data | Extent of loss of native vegetation |
| Output Data Formats | a map |
| Open/Closed Source | Open Source |
|---|---|
| Licence Type | No Licence |
| Licence Cost (Non Commercial) |
$ |
| Licence Cost (Commercial) |
$ |
| Operating Systems | MS Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Dos executable |
|---|---|
| Software Needed | Internet explorer or any form of GIS |
| User Interface | Please Select None, layer in GIS, or visualised using OurEnvironment tool |
| Ease of Use | Easy Easy, if visualised in use Landcare Research online GIS tool “OurEnvironment”. If using in a GIS of course GIS knowledge is required. |
| Use in Policy Process | Plan (Policy Formulation), Do (Policy Implementation), Check (Policy Evaluation), Review (Issue Identification) |
| Documentation | Walker, S., Cieraad, E., Grove, P., Lloyd, K., Myers, S., Park, T. and Porteous, T. (2007). Guide for Users of the Threatened Environment Classification - http://www.landcareresearch.co.nz/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/21688/TECUserGuideV1_1.pdf |
| Support | TEC Home Page - http://www.landcareresearch.co.nz/resources/maps-satellites/threatened-environment-classification |
| Users Forum | None |
| Programming Language | NA |
|---|---|
| Methods included for calibration and validation | None |
| Methods included for managing uncertainty | None |
| Analytical Techniques | Input/output, GIS |
| Model Structure |
Overlay of LENZ lvl 4 environments, native vegetation (determined by a binary exotic/indigenous classification of the LCDB2 landcover classes), and areas protected for biodiversity reasons – together provide for every LENZ lvl4 environment the extent of native vegetation remaining and extent protected. |
| Keywords | LENZ, biodiversity, threatened, land environments |
| Links | TEC Home Page - http://www.landcareresearch.co.nz/resources/maps-satellites/threatened-environment-classification |
| Key References | Walker, S., R. Price, D. Rutledge, R. T. T. Stephens, and W.G. Lee. (2006). Recent loss of indigenous cover in New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Ecology 30: 169–177 - http://www.newzealandecology.org/nzje/abstract.php?volume_issue=j30_2&pdf_filename=NZJEcol30_2_169.pdf&uniqueID=2313 Lloyd, K.M. and Cieraad, E. (2007). Use of LENZ and LCDB2 for determining the representative value of stands of indigenous vegetation. Presentation at the New Zealand Ecological Society Conference, Christchurch 2007. - http://www.landcareresearch.co.nz/databases/threatened/documents/LENZ_LCDB2_representativeness.pdf Leathwick, J.R.; Wilson, G.; Rutledge, D.; Wardle, P.; Morgan, F.; Johnston, K.; McLeod, M.; Kirkpatrick, R. 2003: Land environments of New Zealand. David Bateman, Auckland, New Zealand. |
The objectives was to identify the status of the LENZ environments of the West Coast Regional Council area in terms of the Threatened Environment Classification (TEC), and to quantify the degree of indigenous cover remaining in the West Coast Region; and Buller, Grey and Westland Districts.
Read moreRecently developed national spatial databases enable improved estimates of how much of the full range of New Zealand’s terrestrial biodiversity pattern remains, its rates of change, and how much is legally protected.
Read moreMany regional councils are using the TEC tool to communicate biodiversity protection issues and priorities to the public, including biodiversity strategies (e.g., Canterbury Biodiversity Strategy led by Environment Canterbury), and state of the envirnometn reporting (e.g., Greater Wellington State of the Environment Report 2005). The tool has been incorporated in (draft) Regional Policy Statements in several regions around the country (including Auckland Horizons, Wellington, Waikato, Southland, Canterbury). The first two categories of the Threatened Environment Classification have been adopted as National Priority 1 in the government’s non-statutory Statement of National Priorities for protecting rare and threatened native biodiversity on private land (April 2007). This has resulted in a wide uptake of TEC, and regional and district councils use these national priorities to address their biodiversity responsibilities.
