Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) and National Institute of Water & Atmosphere (NIWA) have launched a web portal providing free public access to data gathered by the Bay of Islands Ocean Survey 20/20 project. "The portal will be an important resource for future management of the Bay of Islands,” says LINZ policy manager Richard O’Reilly.
He says the Bay of Islands coast is under increasing pressure from human activities, both land-based and marine. The huge amount of data NIWA has collected over the last two years, will provide the public and decision makers with a much clearer picture of issues they need to focus on, he notes.
The portal includes information about the area’s marine life and supporting ecosystems, including high-resolution seabed maps and 20000 images, says NIWA in a press statement.
The portal, developed with Wellington company SilverStripe, was built using open data, open standards, and open-source software combined in new ways to deliver real value to scientific and government communities.
LINZ commissioned NIWA to carry out a comprehensive survey, completed in June this year, of the region’s seafloor habitats and biodiversity as part of the Government’s Ocean Survey 20/20 programme.
"In developing the portal, NIWA and LINZ have taken the lead in complying with the government’s policy of making data widely accessible,” says Neville Ching, NIWA business development manager.
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