Benefits of Presenting Statistical Information in a Geospatial Context Presented by: Matt Wootton Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry New Zealand Conference on Climate Change, Development and Official Statistics Seoul, Republic of Korea, December 2008

How Why What Who When Where

Geographic Information System(GIS) usage at the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry(MAF) Building Spatial Data Sector-specific statistics used at MAF Sample Spatial Analysis Presentation Overview

Structure GIS Responsibilities at MAF GIS Focal Points at MAF MAF

Spatial Data

Does breakdown of land match scale of statistics? Data Building – Issues and Opportunities Soil Type zKe 20 Ha zTo 25 Ha zKw 55 Ha Do tabular attributes link to spatial layer’s attributes? Existing spatial layer that properly represents your data? (i.e. matching log export statistics to a specific port or region) Add attributes to data from spatial data based on location?

Example 1a: Using agricultural statistics to calculate stock unit density... Statistics 5.0 Stock Units per Ha FarmArea in HaStock Units A2001,000 B4001,000 C4003,000 1,000 5, ,000 5,000 1,000 5,000

Example 1b: Using agricultural statistics in a GIS to calculate stock unit density… Statistics in a GIS 7.1 Stock Units per Ha , ,000

Basic Point Data – what you can do with a set of numbers Weather Data Widely used Well funded and valued Generally understood

Basic Point Data – how far can you take it? Location of the weather stations Apply a colour scheme Interpolate results/ create surface

Soil Moisture Deficit/Drought in New Zealand

Points to consider… Data Issues Time Series Data - backwards compatibility Continuous/Discrete Data - when to use which type? Metadata

Sector Based Statistics in New Zealand

Agriculture Production Survey/Census Includes Agriculture and Forestry sectors Government funded product Data collection Levels of Geography Data Suppression

National Exotic Forest Description What is it? Data Collection Highly valued Usage Government funded product

Sample Analysis: Land Use Change

Land Resource Inventory Agribase Land Cover Database 2 Excluded lands –Department of Conservation –Forested lands (2 types) Statistics/Data used in sample analysis

Land Resource Inventory… Three main data themes –vegetation –land use capability –Soil (permeability shown) Data used in sample analysis – Land Resource Inventory LUC classes 1 to 5 -flat to gradually sloping land -highly productive soil (orange areas)

Agribase… Commercial product Contains contact info, farm type, stock numbers, farm composition Statistics used in sample analysis – Agribase Farm types not suitable for expansion were excluded. (fish farms, vineyards, zoos) (purple areas)

Data used in sample analysis – Land Cover Database 2 Land Cover Database 2 Classifications based on Landsat 7 National coverage Highly used/valued data layer in NZ Ensure all suitable lands included -all low and high production grasslands were added (yellow areas)

Data used in sample analysis – Screening Layers Department of Conservation Indigenous Forest Exotic Forest DoC, indigenous and exotic forest lands were eliminated from selection (green areas) Native forest - off limits to development Refuges, stewardships, covenants, parks Predominantly Radiata Pine for harvest

Data used in sample analysis – Processing Isolate suitable parcels Intersect suitable lands with land parcels Randomly select parcels throughout NZ until threshold value is reached Remove land parcels currently in the expanding land use type

Economic Drivers Environmental Considerations Social Factors Farming Operation Growth for a Given Scenario

Statistics within a GIS adds value Data linkages, visual clarity Provides versatility Summary

Thank you Questions?