The Forestry Catchment Planner (FCP) is a web application designed to visualise anticipated forestry harvesting cycles to open intergenerational conversations around plantation forestry and its impacts within catchments.
The Forestry Catchment Planner was kindly funded by The National Science Challenge Our Land and Water and aims to create an intuitive, publicly accessible and data driven system for opening intergenerational conversations around plantation forestry harvesting cycles at a catchment scale.
The app helps to visualise:
1) Forest Locations and Ages: Where plantation forest stands are located in the 5 key regions and an accurate approximation of how old they are.
It’s important to note that historically plantation forests were planted in steep, erosion prone land as a mechanism to reduce erosion and sedimentation. They do this really well and it’s a really valuable erosion solution valued at nearly $1 billion per year (Yao et al. 2021).
Forests on steep, erosion-prone land significantly reduce landslides and erosion compared to bare pasture due to their thick roots and leafy canopies. The tree roots reinforce the soil and the umbrella effect of the tree canopy slows rainfall, keeps soils drier and stronger which in turn helps prevent slipping and erosion.
What measures can empower tangata whenua to protect cultural heritage while promoting holistic land use thinking and proactive catchment planning?
View geographic data and simulate the effects of clearfelling on catchment areas, measured as Catchment Management Units.
Understand the hazards forecast for different catchment areas, such as landslide susceptibility and Melton Ratio.
Work with a consistent and accurate baseline of plantation stand age, used as a proxy for likely harvesting activity.
Utilise a time slider and highlight catchments within the window of vulnerability during a given period to identify forested areas needing attention and management focus.
The Forestry Catchment Planner initially focuses on five targeted regions Te Tauihu (Tasman, Nelson, Marlborough) Te Matau-a-Māui (Hawkes Bay), and Tairāwhiti (Gisborne), with the goal of expanding deployment throughout Aotearoa. This project will surface data and information that is currently inaccessible to many due to resource limitations, empowering the forestry sector to showcase progressive and proactive catchment planning with regulators, empower tangata whenua to protect cultural heritage, and encourage other land users to think holistically.
Geomorphologist
GNS Science
Adjunct Senior Fellow
Te Kura Ngahere New Zealand School of Forestry, University of Canterbury
Geospatial Application Specialist
Indufor
Head Of Resource Monitoring
Indufor
Head of Design and Interaction
GeoInsight
Director, Operations Manager
GeoInsight
Director, Geospatial & Software Lead
GeoInsight
GeoInsight is a 'geospatial' software consultancy offering customised mapping solutions to help companies identify patterns, make informed decisions, and communicate better for a sustainable future.
They were responsible for the project management and coordination of effort across all project work streams. Their key function in the project focused on geospatial data visualisation and communicating the complex science in an intuitive and user friendly manner.
GNS Science envisions a cleaner, safer, and more prosperous future for Aotearoa New Zealand by researching geological and Earth-system processes, increasing resilience to natural hazards and climate change, and driving sustainable economic growth in the energy sector.
Their role in the project was a significant one, calculating the Landslide susceptibility modelling using their internal Rainfall Induced Landslide Models, deriving Hillslope and Catchment Management Units from available watershed data sources and calculating the Melton Ratios for debris flow probability.
The University of Canterbury (UC) is the only university in New Zealand offering professional forestry degree programs, with researchers working on industry-driven and academic projects in Forestry Science and Forest Engineering, fostering strong relationships with local forest organisations.
Their role in the project was significant and provided key insight into forestry contexts, guidance around the analysis, literature review and assistance throughout the Landslide and Melton ratio modelling.
Indufor's resource monitoring team is part of Indufor Group, a leading forest sector consulting firm that provides high-quality analysis to forest growers, investors, and government agencies. The monitoring team specialises in creating insights from remote sensing technologies to enhance management and investment decisions.
Indufor's role in the project was to calculate forest stand ages and map the spatial extent of the forest stands across Te Tauihu (Top of the South Island), Te Matau-a-Māui (Hawkes Bay), and Tairāwhiti (Gisborne).
