What the data tells us about our water

By bringing together multiple data sources, we can now see which catchments are under the most pressure, and whether applying all known and emerging on-farm mitigations will ease this pressure by 2035. We can also say just how much better today’s water quality is, thanks to pragmatic and effective action by many land managers to care for the land over the past 20 years, compared to a scenario where no action was taken while the same intensification occurred. A pragmatic response to this data means accelerating this work and continuing to follow the research to undertake new responses.

Speakers
Ton Snelder, director of Land Water People and member of the Land Use Suitability programme team, will share a map built from his research that illustrates current catchment total nitrogen excess (in kg/hectare) compared to regulatory limits
Richard McDowell, chief scientist of Our Land and Water, will share new evidence on the high effectiveness of on-farm mitigations over 20 years, and how far mitigations can get us over the next 15 years.
Research spotlight: Roger Young, group manager for freshwater sciences at the Cawthron Institute, will share a progress update on the Register of Land Management Actions programme’s work to compile information on all mitigations being undertaken within a catchment