On 1 July 2025, NIWA merged with GNS Science to become Earth Sciences New Zealand.

Environmental information

Monitoring, managing, and delivering environmental information from the sky to the sea.

  • Subterranean sensing

    Media release
    Once a year, technicians from NIWA’s North Island Field Team don helmets and head lamps to check a network of CO2 sensors in the world-renowned Waitomo Caves. The sensors help make sure that heavy breathing visitors aren’t wrecking the caves’ precious natural structures and microclimate.
  • The Cylc Suite Engine

    Cylc: a general purpose workflow engine that orchestrates cycling workflows very efficiently.
  • Snow has been low but there’s more to come, say scientists

    Media release
    NIWA’s South Island snow and ice monitoring stations have confirmed what many skiers have been talking about: winter has been dry and snow coverage has been poor. In fact, several sites have recorded half their typical snow depth for this time of year.
  • Rust coding

    Feature story
    Campbell Gardiner explains how hundreds of lines of computer code generated each week are helping biosecurity authorities keep a close eye on a plant pathogen.
  • Citizen science – New Zealand rainfall monitoring network

    For more than a century, a network of volunteers across New Zealand have been measuring the climate and weather and sending their observations each month to be entered into the New Zealand climate database.
  • Kameron Christopher, Chief Scientist - High Performance Computing and Data Science, Wellington.

    Hitting the high notes

    Feature story
    Dr Kameron Christopher plays a mean sax. Campbell Gardiner checks in with NIWA’s new Chief Scientist for High Performance Computing and Data Science.
  • Planning an ocean observation network

    Media release
    New Zealand’s changing ocean environment has prompted the call to develop a system that will keep closer tabs on information from scientific monitoring buoys so the data they produce can be shared as widely as possible.
  • Student buzzing after winning Waikato science fair

    Media release
    A 12-year-old has taken on the most damaging honey bee parasite in the world to win the NIWA Waikato Science and Technology Fair.
  • Upper Rakaia weather station

    Snow and Ice Network

    Research Project
    NIWA has established a network of high elevation electronic weather stations to provide a solid basis to understand seasonal patterns and long-term changes to seasonal snow and ice in alpine regions of New Zealand.
  • Envirolink

    Cost-effective sampling for urban streams and stormwater

    Water quality in urban streams and stormwater systems is frequently poor and highly variable, across both space and time.
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    Sediment and urbanisation

    How does urbanisation increase sediments in waterways?
  • NIWA Instrument Systems

    Instrument Systems is a specialised technology-focused consulting group within NIWA.