Water Resources Explorer – mapping data resources
Want to know a catchment’s sediment yield, runoff, or rainfall?
Interested in river water quality or flood frequency? Keen to find the best rivers for kayaking?
NIWA scientist Dr Ude Shankar has developed a ‘Google Mashup’ to answer such questions quickly and easily for all rivers in New Zealand. The Water Resources Explorer New Zealand (WRENZ) website can be used by anyone from regional council staff to farmers to recreational water users.
Dr Shankar created WRENZ by integrating Google Maps with NIWA’s water-related spatial data such as river lines, catchment boundaries, and gauging stations. With a click of the mouse you can find out the size of the maximum flood or its 100-year equivalent anywhere along a river, the amount of sediment coming down that river annually, the quality of water based on modelled nitrogen levels, and many other modelled water resource statistics.
High resolution satellite imagery provided by Google can be overlayed with catchment boundaries and gauge information to make quick assessments of water resource data availability anywhere in the country.
[Note: this service is no longer available]