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NZLUMNZLUM

Classification System

Version 0.4

Developed by Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research

Whakataukī

Kotahi te aho ka whati, ki te kāpuia e kore e whati.

One strand of flax is easy to break, but many strands together will stand strong.

— Kīngi Tāwhiao

The New Zealand Land Use and Management (NZLUM) classification system adapts the Australian Land Use and Management (ALUM) classification for New Zealand.

A summary PDF is available for download: NZLUM v0.4 Summary PDF

Classes

Section titled “Classes”

Classes in NZLUM are hierarchical by design, this allows for both the aggregation of broad land-use categories and the disaggregation of specific subclasses for analysis and reporting.

NZLUM v0.4.0 1.0.0 Conservation and Minimal Use 1.1.0 Nature conservation 1.1.1 Strict nature reserve 1.1.2 Wilderness area 1.1.3 National Park 1.1.4 Natural feature protection 1.1.5 Habitat or species management area 1.1.6 Protected landscape 1.1.7 Other conserved area 1.2.0 Cultural and natural heritage 1.2.1 Indigenous cultural heritage 1.2.2 Cultural heritage 1.2.3 Natural heritage 1.3.0 Minimal use from relatively natural environments 1.3.1 Surface water supply 1.3.2 Ground water 1.3.3 Grazing native vegetation 1.3.4 Production from indigenous vegetation 1.3.5 Customary use 1.3.6 Defence land 1.3.7 Environmental & infrastructure protection 1.3.8 Carbon forest 1.4.0 Unused and transitioning land 1.4.1 Rehabilitating land 1.4.2 Unused land 2.0.0 Production agriculture and plantations 2.1.0 Plantation forests 2.1.1 Exotic plantation forestry 2.1.2 Indigenous plantation forestry 2.1.3 Other production uses 2.1.4 Planted environmental & infrastructure protection 2.2.0 Grazing modified pasture systems 2.2.1 Dairy 2.2.2 Intensive dry stock 2.2.3 Extensive dry stock 2.3.0 Short-rotation and seasonal cropping 2.3.1 Arable cropping 2.3.2 Arable and mixed livestock cropping 2.3.3 Short-rotation horticulture 2.3.4 Seasonal flowers and bulbs, and turf farming 2.4.0 Perennial horticulture 2.4.1 Tree crops 2.4.2 Vine fruits 2.4.3 Other perennial horticulture 2.5.0 Intensive horticulture 2.5.1 Production nurseries 2.5.2 Glasshouses/shadehouses 2.6.0 Intensive animal production 2.6.1 Intensive animal containment 2.6.2 Poultry farms 2.6.3 Piggeries 2.6.4 Horse studs 2.6.5 Aquaculture 2.7.0 Water and wastewater 2.7.1 Stock water 2.7.2 Effluent pond 2.7.3 Water treatment – land application 2.7.4 Water treatment – wetland 2.7.5 Irrigation reservoirs and canals 2.8.0 Vacant and transitioning land 2.8.1 Rehabilitating land 2.8.2 Abandoned land 2.8.3 Degraded land 2.8.4 No defined use 2.9.0 Smallholder farm 3.0.0 Built environment 3.1.0 Residential 3.1.1 High-density residential 3.1.2 Medium-density residential 3.1.3 Low-density residential 3.1.4 Rural residential 3.2.0 Public recreation and services 3.2.1 Outdoor recreation 3.2.2 Indoor recreation 3.2.3 Community services 3.3.0 Commercial 3.3.1 Retail 3.3.2 Office 3.3.3 Hospitality 3.3.4 Entertainment 3.3.5 Healthcare 3.3.6 Transportation & warehousing 3.4.0 Manufacturing and industrial 3.4.1 General purpose factory 3.4.2 Food processing factory 3.4.3 Major industrial complex 3.4.4 Sawmill 3.4.5 Farm buildings/infrastructure 3.4.6 Abattoirs 3.5.0 Utilities 3.5.1 Fuel powered electricity generation 3.5.2 Hydroelectricity generation 3.5.3 Wind electricity generation 3.5.4 Solar electricity generation 3.5.5 Electricity substations and transmission 3.5.6 Gas treatment, storage, and transmission 3.5.7 Water extraction and transmission 3.5.8 Navigation and communication 3.6.0 Transportation 3.6.1 Airports/aerodromes 3.6.2 Roads 3.6.3 Railways 3.6.4 Ports and water transport 3.7.0 Mining 3.7.1 Mines 3.7.2 Quarries 3.7.3 Tailings 3.7.4 Evaporation basins 3.7.5 Extractive industry not in use 3.8.0 Waste treatment and disposal 3.8.1 Landfills 3.8.2 Transfer stations and recycling facilities 3.8.3 Municipal wastewater 3.8.4 Wastewater treatment – land application 3.8.5 Stormwater management 3.9.0 Vacant and transitioning land 3.9.1 Brownfield development 3.9.2 Greenfield development 3.9.3 Idle and derelict land

Relationship with attributes

Section titled “Relationship with attributes”

Classification of land-use class can include categorical attributes describing:

  • Commodity - e.g. cattle beef, kiwifruit, pine
  • Management practice - e.g. irrigated
  • Tenure and zoning - land_estate or land_status
  • Land cover - current vegetation or surface cover
  • Water - hydrological or marine feature type

Purpose and adaptation

Section titled “Purpose and adaptation”

ALUM provides a strong data structure for standardisation. Its CC-BY 3.0 Australia Licence explicitly allows adaptation. While some ALUM classes are retained, and the basic structre of the classification system is familiar, NZLUM significantly adapts some classes and adds new classes and attributes relevant to New Zealand.

Key Changes from ALUM v8:

  • Irrigation removed as a primary class; it is now a management practice attribute.
  • Water removed as a primary class; it is now treated as a independent attribute.

The rationale for this adjustment is to recognise situations where water is a land cover occuring on a wider land use (such as a reservoir on a farm), and to recognise irrigation more consistently as a farm management practice, and not a land-use in itself.

Treatment of water

Section titled “Treatment of water”

Rather than defining water as a land-use class, as in ALUM, NZLUM records it as an attribute with a controlled vocabulary (i.e. using terms, lake, reservoir, river, wetland, marine). including subtypes (e.g., lake hydro).

Attributes

Section titled “Attributes”

NZLUM follows ALUM’s approach of using attributes of land-use to record additional information. These take the form of “land management practices” or “commodities”, and adopt defined terminology.

Such attributes are considered optional, but they should be included where information permits.

  • Commodity: captures information about crops and livestock (useful for biosecurity, economic modelling, nutrient modelling, greenhouse gas estimation, site-selection, etc.).
  • Management practices: operational details such as irrigation, rotations, dairy wintering off, etc.
  • Tenure: land_estate and land_status reflect ownership or rights affecting land use.
  • Zoning: council zones, such as those proposed in the NZ Planning Standards (2019) allow the linking of planning and actual (current) use and land use potential.
  • Water: controlled terms describing various forms water bodies can take.

Attributes are categorical.

Nothing in this specification should prevent the extension (widening) of the data representation, e.g. to include continuous data to accomodate stocking rate information, demographic information, or other attributes.

References

Section titled “References”

1 Cavanagh J, Whitehead B 2022. Land-use classification for state of the environment soil-quality monitoring. Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research LC4146. https://www.envirolink.govt.nz/assets/Envirolink/2222-GSDC170-Land-use-classification-for-state-of-the-environment-soil-quality-monitoring-and-reporting.pdf

2 Cavanagh J, Whitehead B 2023. Enabling flexibility and connectivity in land-use classification. Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research LC4309. https://www.envirolink.govt.nz/assets/Envirolink/R18-4-Enabling-flexibility-and-connectivity-in-land-use-classification-for-state-of-the-environment-soil-quality-monitoring.pdf

3 Rutledge D et al. 2016. Waikato Integrated Scenario Explorer (WISE). Waikato Regional Council Tech Report #3506882.
4 Price R, Rutledge D, Fraser M 2010. New Zealand Land Use Database. Envirolink Project LCRX0901.
5 MfE 2019. National Planning Standards. https://environment.govt.nz/publications/national-planning-standards/ 6 LINZ 2010. Rating Valuations Rules 2008 (v1 Oct 2010) – LINZS30300. https://www.linz.govt.nz/resources/regulatory/rating-valuations-rules-2008-version-date-1-october-2010-linzs30300