[ad_1]
Supplied/Stuff
Local farmer Simon Topham can use the new catchment map to get to know his land and what approaches suit best when making decisions around green house gas emissions and water quality.
Farmers in the Hedgehope area are getting a better understanding of their land with a new online tool using state-of-the-art technology.
The project, named ‘Understanding our Land to Drive Change’, maps the landscape and its interaction with greenhouse gas emissions and water quality.
Funded by Thriving Southland, the project used airborne radiometric data to improve existing soil maps, and data from a drone survey to create high-resolution hydrological layers.
Hedgehope farmer Simon Topham said the project was about getting information out to farmers, growers and landowners to help them make future environmental decisions.
READ MORE:
* South Waikato catchment group gets $410k boost
* Controversial pump station denied funding
* Southland soil scientists mapping the undiscovered
“As landowners in the catchment we know how hard it can be to prioritise where you put your environmental investment, balancing all the needs of your animals, your land, your waterways, greenhouse gases, water quality and the business,” Topham said.
The map and all its information was free to use for those living in the Hedgehope-Makarewa catchment, which covered about 60,000ha. Land-use in the area was mainly beef and sheep, dairy or dairy support, conservation, plantation forestry and deer.
The project subdivided the catchment into seven groups, who had been working with four case study farms to give insight into their landscape susceptibility and resilience.
Kavinda Herath / Stuff
Datagrid last year revealed the intended location for its Southland data centre between Taylor Rd and Flora Rd East in Makarewa (video first published in March).
Land and Water Science founder and director Clint Rissmann said the map confirmed for landowners that the catchment had highly variable landscapes, so a one-size-fits-all approach to greenhouse gas emissions and water quality would not work.
“You can have exactly the same farms, side by side, and due to the different ways Mother Nature configures herself, get completely different water quality and soil GHG outcomes,” Rissmann said.
Landowners in the catchment could use the online tool to make practical, property specific solutions to bring about their environmental goals, he said.
“This will help land users be more targeted than applying a blanket approach. Mitigation opportunities are often small scale and in locations that are often marginal or challenging to farm, and therefore can create a win/win outcome.”
[ad_2]