Hi All,
Landcare Research have today announced the launch of a new Land Resource
Information System (LRIS) Portal at <http://lris.scinfo.org.nz>.
The portal includes Ecology, Climate, Elevation, Environmental
Management, Land and Lithosphere layers.
Dan
. . .
Announcement from Landcare Research
24th August 2010
Dear Colleague,
Landcare Research is pleased to announce the release of a new online web
resource, the Land Resource Information System (LRIS) Portal, which is
being launched today (24th August 2010).
Details about the Portal can be found at the end of this email or go to
http://lris.scinfo.org.nz to access the Portal itself.
Please do forward this email to friends or colleagues who may be
interested in the LRIS portal.
Best regards,
Dr David Medyckyj-Scott
Informatics Team; Landcare Research
Powerful new resource provides online access to important environmental
data.
New Zealand has a powerful new online resource to assist people in
understanding its diverse natural environments and resources.
With the launch of the Land Resource Information System (LRIS) Portal (
http://lris.scinfo.org.nz), individuals working in regional and central
government, industry, research and education now have quick and easy
access to environment data held by Landcare Research. These geospatial
datasets, many of which are considered of national significance, can be
used for creating maps, analysis, modelling and generally for finding
out about New Zealands environments and land resources.
The information available includes records from the New Zealand land
resource inventory, data underpinning the land environments NZ (LENZ)
data set, fundamental soils layers, regional soil databases and digital
elevation models. These data can be used in a diverse range of
applications. Examples include catchment and resource management,
national monitoring of carbon sources and sinks, studies of climate
change, and preparation of farm plans for land managers.
Built using software provided by Koordinates Limited
(http://koordinates.com), the LRIS Portal marks a major shift to free
on-line access to geospatial information facilitated by Backbone funding
from the Foundation for Science Research and Technology.
Making data collected and managed by Landcare Research available to a
wider audience through an easy-to-use facility is an important first
step by Landcare Research to support New Zealands government-wide
programme to open and reuse government data, says David Medyckyj-Scott,
LRIS Portal Project Leader.
Designed to make the data usable as well as accessible, each data layer
comes with metadata (data about data), supporting documents and
easy-to-understand data use licenses. Users can select from a variety of
data formats and, using a map-based interface, sub-set the geographic
extent of the data so they only download data for the area they are
interested in. This means users no longer need to store large datasets
themselves, they just take the bits they need when they need them.
The amount and type of data available in the portal will be added to
significantly in the future. We have a list of data we have indentified
that can be added to the portal in the coming months says James
Barringer, who manages the data in the portal.
Many of these datasets havent been available publically before but we
know they will be of considerable value.
The portal is part of greater efforts to create a new repository of
authoritative New Zealand science datasets and information.
Contact:
*About using the portal: *
<email obscured>
*About this announcement:*
Dr David Medyckyj-Scott
Landcare Research, Palmerston North
P: 06-353-4979
E: <email obscured>
Tom Fraser
Media Communications Manager
Landcare Research
P: 03-321-9719 / 027-277-6183
E: <email obscured>
Landcare Research
PO Box 40
Lincoln, 7640