Waikato Regional Estuary Monitoring - Intertidal Estuarine Vegetation Webpage
- Keywords
- Plants/vegetation, Aerial photography, Benthic Communities (including shellfish)
- Summary
- The purpose of this dataset is to map the spatial extent of estuarine vegetation in Waikato estuaries and harbours and follow changes in communities over time for state of the environment reporting. Initially, this dataset contained estuarine vegetation maps for eight estuaries on the Coromandel Peninsula (Manaia, Te Kouma, Coromandel, Whitianga, Tairua, Wharekawa, Whangamata, Otahu). More recently, surveys have been completed in the inner Firth of Thames, Port Waikato, Aotea Harbour and Raglan (Whaingaroa) Harbour, Colville Bay Estuary and Purangi Estuary. The vegetation that has been mapped is within the Coastal Marine Area (CMA) and includes the spatial cover of mangrove, seagrass, sea meadow, saltmarsh and estuarine weed communities. The results of the estuarine vegetation surveys are included in Environment Waikato’s Global Information System (GIS) database, and are used for State of the Environment investigations and assessing resource consent applications that may affect estuarine vegetation