Soil quality

Waikato progress indicators – Tupuranga Waikato
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Waikato Progress Indicators - tupuranga Waikato

Image - soilSOIL QUALITY

WPI - no change icon    NO SIGNFICANT CHANGE 

(Note: trend indicator above is relative to 2007 WPI baseline year)

The percentage of monitoring sites in the Waikato region with high soil quality showed an improvement in recent years but fell back around the long-term average in 2023.

This indicator is the estimated percentage of soil quality monitoring sites in the Waikato region meeting five or more of the seven soil quality targets.

Why is this indicator important?

Measuring soil quality for four main land use types in the Waikato region helps councils assess whether they are suited to the activities they support. These activities include dairy farming, drystock farming (sheep, beef, deer etc.), horticulture and cropping, and plantation forestry. Good quality soils are those whose key characteristics are in good condition for their current land use. Soils with good soil quality are able to carry out vital but sometimes conflicting soil functions. Some of the most important functions are food and other biomass production or a platform for man-made structures, biological habitat and gene pool or a source of raw materials, and several regulating services, such as water storage and supply, nutrient storage and supply, filtering contaminants and storage of carbon as soil organic matter to mitigate climate change.

Monitoring these sites helps councils to identify and manage issues so they can protect or improve soil quality in these areas through their policies and plans, regulation and education. This includes working directly with people involved in activities or industries that can have a significant impact on the land, to ensure our region’s soils remain viable now and in the future.

Soil quality

Waikato Progress Indicators soil quality graph

Note: percentages are corrected for productive land area. 

Year Per cent of monitoring sites meeting five or more soil quality targets
2003 87
2004 87
2005 86
2006 88
2007 86
2008 88
2009 85
2010 82
2011 85
2012 82
2013 80
2014 77
2015 78
2016 83
2017 85
2018 82
2019 88
2020 90
2021 92
2022 92
2023 84

What is this indicator telling us? 

  • The percentage of soil quality monitoring sites in the Waikato region which met five or more soil quality targets had improved substantially since 2014. However, this improvement was reversed, possibly due to a wet spring. The result for 2023 was 84% compared to 86% in 2007.

DATA SOURCE AND SUPPORTING INFORMATION

Waikato Regional Council monitors soil quality sites throughout the region against seven targets agreed by the National Land Monitoring Forum: total carbon (organic matter), total nitrogen (N), mineralised N, soil pH (acidity/alkalinity), phosphorous (P), soil density and macroporosity (a measure of the ability for air and water to penetrate the soil).

Data for this indicator were provided by Waikato Regional Council, consistent with Taylor, M., Cox, N., Littler, R. and Drewry, J. (2017) 'Trends in soil quality monitoring data in the Waikato region 1995-2015', Waikato Regional Council Technical Report 2017/26. Waikato Regional Council, Hamilton.

Comparisons with New Zealand and other regions are expected to be available in future via the Waikato Regional Council Soil Scientist.

Update details: Annual data to 2023 were sourced in May 2024.

Customised data request requirements: Contact is Waikato Regional Council for the estimated percentage of total productive land in the Waikato region meeting five or more soil quality targets and related secondary indicators.

DATA AVAILABILITY – OTHER THAN WAIKATO REGION:

Territorial Authority (TA) disaggregation: No

Other regions: No

New Zealand: No

Other countries/ Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD):  No