CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research
Past Seminars

Tuesday 9 December, 11.30 am (Tas time)

CSIRO Auditorium, Hobart

Ton Snelder
New Zealand National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research

New Zealand's Marine Environment Classification System

The New Zealand Ministry for the Environment, Department of Conservation, and Ministry of Fisheries are collaborating to develop a spatial framework for New Zealand's marine environments, including the entire exclusive economic zone (EEZ). The purpose of the Marine Environment Classification (MEC) is to provide a spatial framework for management applications such as (1) conducting large-scale environmental assessments and communicating results to the public, (2) design and reporting of environmental monitoring programs, (3) conservation planning and management, and (4) regulation of resource use. A substantial body of work has been completed on this project and testing of the classification, using biological data, is currently under way. The presentation will discuss the process used to develop the classification system and present results of the work to date. A key feature of the spatial framework is that it is based on environment classification, with units defined automatically in environmental space, rather than using a qualitative process operating in geographic space (regionalisation). Stakeholders in the development of the MEC considered that such a classification offered advantages over regionalisation for most of the intended applications of the spatial framework. The choice of environmental variables was guided by the intention that the classification should summarise variation in the major drivers of ecosystem patterns. The hierarchical nature of the classification allows ease of use over a wide variety of spatial scales. Finally, because such classifications are defined in environmental space, they are more likely to identify classes regardless of their spatial location or extent than geographic-based approaches, which are generally constrained to a characteristic scale.

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