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

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 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.