Strategic land use management

The issue and impact

New Zealand's mosaic of managed and natural ecosystems must coexist sustainably. Future conflict will arise between community goals for high quality water for drinking, recreation and aesthetics, and land-user goals of increased intensification and profitability.

The ability to satisfy multiple demands can be increased by the optimum spatial location of more intensive land use activities relative to areas of impact on water quality.

Research needs

• Integrate and aggregate biophysical models of different enterprises to the landscape scale, including risk and variability considerations
• Create new ways of exploring the impacts of changing land uses and land management behaviours by using these new models in conjunction with existing GIS and remote-sensing capabilities
• Develop ideal landscape designs using tools based on the distribution of resources across the landscape.