​ ​ ​ ​ ​

Alert

Council Services

Council’s offices are closed from midday on Tuesday 24 December and reopen at 8.30 am on Monday 6 January. More information.

Contact

Search

Land Cover Database

The New Zealand Land Cover Database (LCDB)

The New Zealand Land Cover Database (LCDB) is a classification of New Zealand’s land cover. It provides a series of ‘snapshots’ of land cover in the form of maps derived from satellite imagery across the country, covering the dates: 1996, 2001, 2008, 2012 and 2018. The latest version of LCDB is version 5.0 based on imagery captured in 2018.These images are analysed and split into 33 mainland land cover classes.
Go to the LCDB v5.0 on the LRIS website

As the LCDB data is derived from satellite imagery covering the entire country It is intended to be used to show land cover at a regional scale rather than property scale, there are likely to be some minor accuracy issues when viewed regionally.

The LCDB classes have been grouped into similar categories and used to help create the following graphs summarizing the most up to date data for Marlborough. Along with the LCDB data, Marlborough District Council’s own layer has been used, specifically the Department of Conservation (DOC) graphs. Therefore, numbers should be read as approximate values as some discrepancies may occur.

Urban

  • Built-up Area (settlement)
  • Urban Parkland/Open Space
  • Transport Infrastructure
  • Surface Mine or Dump

Unused

  • Sand or Gravel
  • Landslide
  • Permanent Snow and Ice
  • Gravel or Rock
  • Gorse and/or Broom

Water

  • Lake or Pond
  • River
  • Estuarine Open Water

Cropping

  • Short-rotation Cropland

Viticulture

  • Orchards, Vineyards or Other Perennial Crops

Pasture

  • High Producing Exotic Grassland
  • Low Producing Grassland
  • Tall Tussock Grassland
  • Depleted Grassland

Native Forest

  • Alpine Grass/Herbfield
  • Herbaceous Freshwater Vegetation
  • Herbaceous Saline Vegetation
  • Flaxland
  • Fernland
  • Manuka and/or Kanuka
  • Broadleaved Indigenous Hardwoods
  • Sub Alpine Shrubland
  • Mixed Exotic Shrubland
  • Matagouri or Grey Scrub
  • Indigenous Forest

Forestry

  • Forest - Harvested
  • Deciduous Hardwoods
  • Exotic Forest

Figure 1 shows the percentage of different land classes around Marlborough. The majority being Native Forest and Pasture. Urban, Cropping and Water are not shown in the graph as they make up <1% of land around Marlborough.

Figure 1. The percentage of different land classes around Marlborough.

Figure 2 shows the percentage of different land classes around Marlborough that Department of Conservation (DOC) own. Native Forest is the predominant land class on land that DOC owns, followed by Pasture, Unused land and Forestry.

Urban, Water, Cropping and Viticulture are not shown in the graph as these are most likely mapping errors and equate to less than <1% DOC owned land classes in Marlborough.

Figure 2. The percentage of DOC owned land around Marlborough.

Figure 3 shows that out of the 482,724 ha of Native Forest in Marlborough, 58 % is owned by DOC and 42% is privately owned.

Figure 3. The percentage of Native Forest ownership in Marlborough.

In terms of productivity in Marlborough, the main classes that fall under this heading are Pasture, Exotic Forestry, Vineyard and Cropping. See Figure 4.

Figure 4. Main types of productive land use in Marlborough.

Figure 5 shows that DOC land is mainly being used for production through Pasture and Exotic Forestry. This data shows that DOC owns 37.5% of all productive land in Marlborough mostly as pastoral leases in High Country such as Molesworth Station.

Figure 5. Type of productive land owned by DOC in Marlborough.

Share this

Share this page

Sharing...