8  Soils

Most parts of New Zealand have at least some existing soils knowledge documented in various forms. These resources can be a valuable starting point when conducting new research or survey work.

8.1 Māori soil knowledge

The traditional Māori understanding of soils and its development into modern systems can be explored in Harmsworth and Roskruge (2014a), Harmsworth and Roskruge (2014b), and Harmsworth (2022). Soil information of relevance to Māori land can be viewed in the Whenua Māori Visualisation tool, along with land use suitability data.

8.2 Legacy soil mapping

Post-settlement soil mapping in New Zealand started as early as the 1910s. Many of these records have been digitised and can be explored on the Manaaki Whenua Legacy Map Viewer. Accompanying reports are available from the Manaaki Whenua Digital Library. Pātaka Oneone, the Manaaki Whenua Soils Portal, offers many more resources for accessing knowledge about New Zealand’s soils.

As well as mapping in New Zealand itself, New Zealand pedologists have worked extensively in the Pacific. Reports and maps for many islands are available from the Digital Library, and the data from that work has been compiled in a modern format for the Pacific Soils Portal.

8.3 Modern soil mapping

The flagship regional-scale soil mapping product for New Zealand is S-map. Information about S-map, including a web-based interactive map, is available at S-map Online.

8.4 Books about New Zealand Soils

Key companion standards to this handbook are the New Zealand Soil Classification (Hewitt and MWLR Pedology Staff, 2024) and Criteria for defining the soil family and soil sibling (Webb and Lilburne 2011). Together these documents allow New Zealand soil information to be efficiently recognised and communicated. Further information about how the classification was formulated can be found in the Methods and rationale of the New Zealand soil classification (Hewitt 1993).

The reader is encouraged to explore the reference list for this description standard. General references of particular value are Soils in the New Zealand Landscape: The Living Mantle (Molloy 1998), which is available for download from the New Zealand Soil Science Society, and The Soils of Aotearoa New Zealand (Hewitt et al. 2021).

Harmsworth GR 2022. Soil security: An indigenous Māori perspective from Aotearoa-New Zealand. Soil security. Palmerston North, New Zealand.

Harmsworth GR, Roskruge N 2014a. Indigenous Māori Values, Perspectives, and Knowledge of Soils in Aotearoa-New Zealand A. Beliefs, and Concepts of Soils, the Environment, and Land. In: Churchman JG, Landa ER, editors. [place unknown]: CRC Press; p. 112–124.

Harmsworth GR, Roskruge N 2014b. Indigenous Māori Values, Perspectives, and Knowledge of Soils in Aotearoa-New Zealand B. Māori use and knowledge of soils over time. In: Churchman JG, Landa ER, editors. The Soil Underfoot: Infinite possibilities for a finite resource. [place unknown]: CRC Press; p. 257–266.

Hewitt AE 1993. Methods and rationale of the new zealand soil classification. Wellington, New Zealand: Manaaki Whenua Press. https://doi.org/10.7931/DL1-LRSS-2

Hewitt AE, Balks MR, Lowe DJ 2021. The soils of Aotearoa New Zealand. [Internet]. 1st ed. Switzerland: Springer Nature Switzerland. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64763-6

Hewitt AE, MWLR Pedology Staff, 2024. New Zealand soil classification (draft 4th edition). [Internet]. 4th ed. Wellington, New Zealand: Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research. https://soils.landcareresearch.co.nz/topics/soil-classification/nzsc/nzsc-wg

Molloy L 1998. The living mantle: Soils in the New Zealand landscape. [Internet]. 2nd ed. Wellington, New Zealand: Mallinson Rendel. https://nzsss.science.org.nz/books/

Webb TH, Lilburne LR 2011. Criteria for defining the soil family and soil sibling : The fourth and fifth categories of the New Zealand Soil Classification. [Internet]. 2nd ed. Christchurch, New Zealand: Manaaki Whenua Press. https://doi.org/10.7931/DL1-LRSS-3-2011