Sensing Water: First estimates of soil moisture from the Rongowai airborne remote sensing mission for GNSS-Reflectometry

Date 2022 Authors Matthew Wilson, Delwyn Moller, Sharmila Savarimuthu, Xander Cai, Chris Ruf Abstract In a unique partnership, the Rongowai (“sensing water” in te reo Māori) airborne remote sensing mission comprises of a next-generation Global Navigation Satellite System Reflectometry (GNSS-R) receiver (NGRx) mounted on a domestic Air New Zealand Q300 aircraft. The sensor captures reflected […]

Uncertainty in Bathymetry Estimation

Date September 5-6, 2023 Submitted to The Fourth Spatial Data Science Symposium Authors M. Nguyen, M. D. Wilson, E. M. Lane, J. Brasington, R. Pearson Introduction River bathymetry plays a crucial role in flood modelling in the form of Digital Elevation Model (DEM). It increases the reliability, accuracy and continuity of the DEM. However, river […]

Building Future Urban Development Scenarios into Assessments of Future Flood Risk

Date September 5-6, 2023 Submitted to The Fourth Spatial Data Science Symposium Author Katherine Booker Supervisors Professor Iain White, University of Waikato and Professor Matthew Wilson, GRI University of Canterbury Research Problem The devastating impact of flood events demonstrates the need for more comprehensive assessments of future flood risk in urban policy. Risk assessments based […]

Water Allocation and the Canterbury Land and Water Regional Plan

Date September 5-6, 2023 Submitted to The Fourth Spatial Data Science Symposium Author Katherine Booker Supervisor Phil Davies Sponsors Suzanne Gabites and Ilja van Nieuwpoort Project Aim The Land and Water Regional Plan sets limits on the quantity of fresh water in each river or stream that can be allocated to consents to take water, […]

Data processing for flood risk assessments

Project summary Alongside the uncertainty research, the GRI is working with NIWA to help produce consistent, open-source methodology for the national flood risk assessments. The methods developed are guided by a number of physically-based flood inundation modelling efforts that have been attempted internationally both at national and global scale. The research programme is specifically addressing […]

Uncertainties in flood risk assessments

Project summary Flooding is one of New Zealand’s most damaging hazards. This research programme is supporting the changes that are needed to our flood risk management. The overall aim of the programme is to provide the first, high-resolution flood hazard assessment for every catchment in the country. The research is producing New Zealand’s first consistent, […]

Biological Heritage Challenge: Eco-Index Programme

Research team Dr Kiri Joy Wallace (University of Waikato) Dr John Reid (J D Reid LTD) Ngāti Pikiao (Tainu and Ngai Tahu Research Centre, University of Canterbury). Nathaniel Calhoun (Code Innovation) Kevan Cote (Moose Engineering & Design) Karen Denyer (Papawera Consulting Ltd) Saif Khan (GRI) Funding New Zealand National Science Challenge Project summary The Eco-index […]

New Zealand Inventory of Dams

NZID Illustration

New Zealand Inventory of Dams STAGE TWO UPDATE AND ANALYSIS Stage 2   New Zealand Inventory of Dams The Ministry for the Environment (MfE) and Ministry for Business, Innovation, and Employment (MBIE) require a better understanding of New Zealand’s dam infrastructure in order to assess costs and benefits associated with a proposed regulatory dam safety scheme. The […]