Mapping editions

Edition 1 mapping was carried out between 1972 and 1979. The North Island was divided into 10 regions and the South Island was mapped as a single region. Mapping was carried out at a field sheet compilation scale of 1:63,360 (1 inch to one mile).

A total of 85,000 map units were identified in the NZLRI throughout New Zealand (excluding Stewart Island and the Chatham Islands) with a mean map unit size of 335 hectare (ha) (maximum 61,265 ha) and minimum map unit size targeted at 15 ha (although there are approximately 300 Edition 1 polygons of less than 10 ha).

Part of the Waikato region was remapped during 1980-84, with some 20 additional LUC units being added to the regional extended legend and published in 1986. This part-regional upgrade is consider

Edition 2 mapping was carried out between 1988 and 1998 in four regions: Northland; Gisborne-East Coast; Wellington; and Marlborough. Each region had an upgraded or new regional extended legend, field sheet compilation was carried out at 1:50,000 scale. The more detailed mapping scale and time available lead to a significant change in map resolution from Edition 1. A total of 37,000 map units were identified across the four regions with a mean map unit size of 97 ha (maximum 3,327 ha) and minimum map unit size targeted at 5 ha approximately 360 map units of less than 5 ha).

The mapping process was essentially the same as for Edition 1, except for the use of: new regional LUC Extended Legends; a national rock type classification; the recording of soil by New Zealand Soil Classification (NZSC) to Subgroup level for Gisborne East Coast instead of soil series or set; North Island style erosion severity recording in Marlborough (e.g. 3Sc2Sh1G cf. 3ScShG); a new and more detailed vegetation coding and the recording of percentage cover to the nearest 10%.

Paper maps for Edition 2 were only published for the Northland region. For the other regions 2nd Edition data is available through Geographic Information Systems (GIS) only.

The third edition (2000), accessed via the LRIS Portal contains a restructured polygon attribute table to allow the core NZLRI to complement the newly created fundamental soil layers with minimal duplication.

The latest update of Edition 3 NZLRI involves no new mapping but does include a new National Land Use Capability legend that correlated for all regions across New Zealand. Attributes include original LUC units codes and unit descriptions so that users more familiar with original regional codes and North Island correlations can track the pedigree of units from old to new codes and descriptions.

The NZLRI is a powerful tool as it provides consistent coverage across the entire country at a nominal scale of 1:50 000. 

The NZLRI spatial database contains the same information as the NZLRI worksheets. There are about 100 000 polygons (map units) within the NZLRI, each of which describes a parcel of land in terms of five characteristics or attributes (rock type, soil, slope, present erosion type and severity, vegetation). Soil information is adapted from publicly available soil surveys produced by Manaaki Whenua and its predecessor organisations.