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

Research

All NIWA research projects

  • Acoustic monitoring of the critically endangered Māui dolphin

    Research Project
    Māui dolphins, a subspecies of Hector’s dolphins, are listed as nationally critical in New Zealand with a population estimate between 57 and 75 dolphins over one year old.
  • Biological traits, a new tool for estimating ecosystem health and vulnerability

    Research Project
    Biological traits analysis is a valuable tool for measuring ecosystem function.
  • Generating synthetic wind data

    Research Project
    NIWA has recently created synthetic, multi-year, 10-minute wind datasets at 15 wind farm sites across New Zealand. These will be used by the Electricity Commission to model the impact of wind farms on the national grid.
  • Biogas from pig farms

    Research Project
    Biogas from pig farms
  • Regional modelling of New Zealand climate

    Research Project
    Developing probabilistic scenarios of expected future regional climate changes.
  • Assessment of crop and tree species growing potential using climate, soil and topographic information

    Research Project
    This project demonstrates how to assess high value alternative land-use options by means of a quantitative analysis of the growing potential of selected niche crops and tree species.
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    'Eleven-station' series temperature data

    Research Project
    Temperature trends from 1930s to present day
  • South coast waves

    Wave hazard research

    Research Project
    NIWA collects wave data, develops and verifies wave forecasting systems, and is developing and producing wave projections.
  • Determining the age of fish

    Research Project
    NIWA expends considerable effort on determining the age of commercial fish species. But why age a fish? And how do we do it?
  • Development of sustainable water supply and treatment systems for a coastal Fijian village

    Research Project
    This collaborative NZaid project worked with coastal Fijian villagers at Votua on the Coral Coast of Viti Levu to develop pragmatic water supply and waste treatment solutions to protect public health and reduce contamination of coastal waters.
  • White sharks

    Research Project
    Where and when do white sharks occur in New Zealand waters, and how can fisheries bycatch be reduced?
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    What do we measure?

    Research Project
    A range of physical and chemical variables are measured in the NRWQN.