Southland Science Programme
Learn more about the Southland Science Programme, the questions we are trying to answer with this world-leading programme, who we're working with and the latest results.
Environment Southland has many years of monitoring data and research information that can contribute but it needs to improve its knowledge of the water systems, both above and below ground, for the region.
How does water move through our soils, rivers and aquifers and how does this movement of water transport contaminants and how does this water, and the associated ecosystem response, vary with land use?
The research programme that has been developed considers the effects of urban and rural land based activities and how to manage and mitigate them by understanding how water passes through the landscape and what the effects of land based contaminants are on water bodies being rivers, estuaries, lakes and groundwater and the connections between those water bodies.
The research is aimed at providing the information that policy makers, land managers and our communities need. In addition to utilising the existing knowledge and monitoring data, the research is supplemented through building a network with research organisations, Crown Research Institutes (CRIs), Universities and other applied research organisations, with funding from a variety of external sources as well as those internal to council.
The main product of the research will be a strong conceptual understanding of the functioning of natural systems within Southland, which will provide the spatial and temporal context for community engagement and better resource management. A key output of this approach will be the provision of numerical models (tools) for Council and the community.
Read the reports that have been generated from this programme here.
Read more about each of the themes in the Southland Science Programme:
Water 2010
Read the reports that make up the Water 2010 series:
