Water & Atmosphere 7, June 2013

It was 14 years ago that Tourism New Zealand (TNZ) launched its '100% Pure' marketing campaign in Queenstown. Images of majestic mountains, blue skies, green fields and sparkling waters were matched with imploring stanzas from Crowded House’s “Don’t Dream It’s Over”.

When Christchurch City Council began work on the Avon Precinct Project – an ambitious and high-priority component of the city’s post-quake rebuild – they wanted to understand the likely consequences for the CBD during a once-in-a-hundred-year flood of the Avon River.

What can 40 years’ worth of CO2 measurements tell us? An awful lot, says Dr Mike Harvey. “We want to know how the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere changes over time, in relation to what we’re emitting into the atmosphere.”

A new collaboration between NIWA and Canterbury farmers could see huge gains in irrigation efficiency, with financial savings to match.

Over the three summer months, most of New Zealand sweltered under record or near-record sunshine, while much of the North Island, Canterbury and Westland got less than half their normal seasonal rainfall.

Nineteenth-century whaling logs – chronicles of systematic slaughter – are now helping to protect southern right whales. NIWA scientists pored over pages of grim reapings that nevertheless held valuable clues to the whales’ present-day behaviour and distribution.

Dr Malcolm Francis has been diving for 40 years, but that doesn’t mean he’s seen it all. In fact, just last month he spotted two rare fish in the same dive, right off his local beach.

The discovery in Fiordland of two more marine creatures new to science has researchers pondering just how many more unknown species await in its dark, undiveable depths.

The sea might seem a distant, even hostile, place. But our coasts and oceans – and the creatures in them – not only grant us wealth, sustenance and pleasure, they keep our planet functioning, finds Aimee Whitcroft.

The economy and the environment could both use some help, but both can flourish. NIWA scientists talk about managing the issues for the sake of our kids.

Whatever their domain – land, asset, production or risk – managers are hungry for good intel about the future. That’s where NIWA’s customised forecasting comes in, writes Colin Barkus.

Clean and green? Or a noxious blight on our coasts? A sustainable way to feed the world? Or just another example of fishing down the food chain? Opprobrium towards fish farms, finds Marieke Hilhorst, is sometimes based on perceptions either outdated or just plain wrong.

A gallery of cloud images from this issue of Water & Atmosphere

It’s true that, by some indicators, New Zealand enjoys better environmental health than many other developed nations. But are we doing as well as we could?