Mapping the Services and Benefits of Indigenous Biodiversity and Historic Heritage in New Zealand an Exploration of Spatial Datasets
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Mapping the services and benefits of indigenous biodiversity and historic heritage in New Zealand An exploration of spatial datasets Alison Chick and Ross Laurence Cover: Lake Hawea, 2014. Photo: © Bernard Spragg. This report is available from the departmental website in pdf form. Titles are listed in our catalogue on the website, refer www.doc.govt.nz under Publications, then Books, posters and factsheets © Copyright May 2016, New Zealand Department of Conservation ISBN 978–0–478–15068–1 (web PDF) This report was prepared for publication by the Publishing Team; editing by Amanda Todd and layout by Lynette Clelland. Publication was approved by the Deputy Director-General, Science and Policy Group, Department of Conservation, Wellington, New Zealand. Published by Publishing Team, Department of Conservation, PO Box 10420, The Terrace, Wellington 6143, New Zealand. In the interest of forest conservation, we support paperless electronic publishing. CONTENTS Abstract 1 Executive summary 2 1. Introduction 8 1.1 Mapping approaches 8 1.2 Ecosystem services in the context of conservation in New Zealand 10 1.3 Objectives 12 2. Framework 13 3. Methods 15 3.1 Sources of datasets 15 3.1.1 Department of Conservation 15 3.1.2 Other sources 16 4. Stocktake of spatial datasets 17 4.1 Ecological and biodiversity data 17 4.1.1 Terrestrial ecosystems 22 4.1.2 Freshwater ecosystems 23 4.1.3 Estuarine ecosystems 24 4.1.4 Marine ecosystems 24 4.1.5 Discussion 25 4.2 Historic heritage data 27 4.3 Human activities and built infrastructure data 28 4.3.1 Asset Management Information System (AMIS) 28 4.3.2 Permissions Database 32 4.3.3 National Environmental Standards for Sources of Human Drinking Water Database 33 4.3.4 Statistics New Zealand data 33 4.3.5 Discussion 35 4.4 Ecosystem service data 36 4.4.1 Ecosystem Services for Multiple Benefits 36 4.4.2 Mapping the values of New Zealand’s coastal waters 38 4.4.3 Ecosystem goods and services in marine protected areas 38 4.4.4 Geodatabase for Mapping Marine Recreational Use and Value 40 4.4.5 Water Bodies of National Importance (WONI) 40 4.4.6 Sustainable Land Use Research Initiative (SLURI), and the Soil and Land Use Alliance (SLUA) —soil natural capital valuation 40 4.4.7 Discussion 43 5. GIS-based ecosystem service assessment tools 45 5.1 Selecting GIS-based tools for conservation purposes in New Zealand 46 5.1.1 LUCI: Land Utilisation and Capability Indicator GIS Toolbox 46 5.1.2 Zonation 47 5.1.3 SeaSketch 48 6. Case studies 49 6.1 Cultural ecosystem services 50 6.1.1 Nature-based recreation and tourism 50 6.1.2 Identity values 58 6.1.3 Cultural ecosystem services 61 6.2 Historic heritage services 64 6.2.1 Historic heritage values and ecosystem services 65 6.2.2 Mapping historic heritage values 66 6.3 Māori cultural values 68 6.3.1 Māori values and ecosystem services 68 6.3.2 A framework for understanding Māori values and ecosystem services 70 6.3.3 Mapping Māori ecosystem services 72 6.4 Perceived social values of ecosystem services 74 6.4.1 Mapping perceived social values 74 6.5 Services that benefit agricultural and horticultural industries 78 6.5.1 Pest control 78 6.5.2 Pollination of food crops 80 6.5.3 Honey production 83 6.5.4 Soil natural capital 84 6.6 Freshwater ecosystem services 85 6.6.1 Water supply 85 6.6.2 Water quality 88 6.6.3 Water use 92 6.6.4 Social values of freshwater ecosystem services 93 6.7 Marine and estuarine ecosystem services 97 7. Conclusions 102 8. Recommendations 105 9. Acknowledgements 108 10. References 109 Appendix 1 GIS-based tools for assessing ecosystem services 126 Appendix 2 Data categories 132 Appendix 3 How many people drink water that at least partly originates from lakes whose catchments are dominated by natural land cover? 134 Mapping the services and benefits of indigenous biodiversity and historic heritage in New Zealand An exploration of spatial datasets Alison Chick1,2 and Ross Laurence1,3 1 Science & Capability Group, Department of Conservation, Private Bag 4715, Christchurch Mail Centre, Christchurch 8140, New Zealand. Email: [email protected] 2 Current address: 108 Otaki Street, Kaiapoi 7630, New Zealand 3 Current address: Landcare Research, PO Box 69040, Lincoln 7640, New Zealand Abstract The Department of Conservation is responsible for conserving indigenous biodiversity and historic heritage in New Zealand. Understanding the many ways that these contribute to our wellbeing will not only draw attention to the importance of their conservation; but it will also aid decision-makers to follow a more holistic decision-making approach in order to achieve greater gains for both conservation and society. With a view of using spatial analysis and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to inform such decision-making in future, we reviewed spatial data for mapping ecosystem services and historic heritage services at a national level, summarised information on currently available GIS-based ecosystem service assessment tools and how they can be used to further conservation in New Zealand, and explored in greater detail the specific data requirements, information gaps and mapping approaches for selected case studies (cultural ecosystem services, historic heritage services, Māori cultural values, perceived social values of ecosystem services, pest control, pollination, mānuka honey, soil services, freshwater ecosystem services, marine and estuarine ecosystem services). Keywords: conservation, ecosystem service, Geographic Information System (GIS), historic heritage, indigenous biodiversity, spatial analysis, spatial data, mapping, New Zealand © Copyright May 2016, Department of Conservation. This paper may be cited as: Chick, A.; Laurence, R. 2016: Mapping the services and benefits of indigenous biodiversity and historic heritage in New Zealand: an exploration of spatial datasets. Department of Conservation, Wellington. 135 p. Chick & Laurence—Mapping the services and benefits of indigenous biodiversity and historic heritage 1 Executive summary The Department of Conservation (DOC) is responsible for conserving indigenous biodiversity and historic heritage in New Zealand. An increased understanding of the many ways that these contribute to the wellbeing of New Zealanders will help draw attention to the importance of their conservation. This, in turn, will help decision-makers, policy-makers and managers to take these contributions into account when making decisions so that better outcomes can be achieved for conservation and society, both immediately and in the long-term. The benefits that humans receive from ecosystems are commonly termed ‘ecosystem services’ (MA 2005) and several international initiatives have classified these to aid decision-making. Similarly, we use the term ‘historic heritage services’ to refer to the benefits humans receive from historic heritage. It is important that the full range of ecosystem services and historic heritage services are considered to ensure that decisions, policies and management do not lead to unwanted and unexpected trade-offs, as a decision to enhance one resource, service or value is often at the expense of others. Geographic information systems (GIS) can be effectively used to do this, as problems involving natural heritage, historic heritage and their services, including scenario-testing to identify such trade-offs, are inherently spatial in nature. Therefore, with a view to using GIS for this purpose in the future, in this report we: • Review spatial data for mapping ecosystem services and historic heritage services at a national level in New Zealand, with a focus on the natural and historic heritage managed by DOC. • Summarise information on currently available GIS-based ecosystem service assessment tools and how they could be used to further conservation in New Zealand. • Explore in greater detail the specific data requirements, information gaps and mapping approaches for selected case studies. Stocktake of spatial datasets Internationally, several approaches have been developed to map the supply, use and demand of ecosystem services, including expert knowledge, causal relationships, benefit transfer using lookup tables, extrapolation of primary data, regression models and participatory mapping methods (e.g. see Egoh et al. 2012; Martínez-Harms & Balvanera 2012; Schägner et al. 2012; Crossman et al. 2013). While some services can be quantified and mapped directly, it is often necessary to use these approaches to develop spatially explicit indicators based on readily available data such as land use, land cover, soil, vegetation and nutrient-related data (Egoh et al. 2012). We focused our stocktake on the following spatial data for terrestrial, freshwater, estuarine and marine ecosystems: • Ecological and biodiversity data—Since different types of ecosystems provide different suites of ecosystem services, spatial data describing ecosystem characteristics (particularly ecosystem classifications) are useful for spatially defining ecosystem services. • Historic heritage data—Spatial data for historic heritage assets and places can be used to estimate the spatial distribution of historic heritage services. • Human activities and built infrastructure data—These data, which include the visitor assets managed by DOC, can be used to develop indicators showing where humans are deriving benefits from natural and historic heritage. • Ecosystem service data—Several ecosystem services have already been mapped at a national level in New Zealand as a result of various research initiatives. 2 Chick & Laurence—Mapping the