Description: This layer contains polygons that delineate the location and extent of coastal dunelands covered in natural, dryland vegetation in the Wellington Region. The dunelands include both active and stabilised sand and gravel dunes. While these dunes may be invaded by exotic plants, they retain their natural character through not having been transformed for land use or are being rehabilitated as at Queen Elizabeth Park (QEP). Areas oversown to pasture and grazed have generally been excluded unless, like QEP, grazing has been removed and they are actively being rehabilitated.
Service Item Id: de781ead034c437c92751011ef64c284
Copyright Text: The polygons were digitized off the Wellington_Rural_2017 series of aerial images with reference to the Wellington Region Rural 2013 series. The seawards boundary of the polygons has been delineated from the NZ 1:50,000 Topographic Map series coastline layer which represents the mean high water. The exception to this is the Eastbourne foreshore which has grown beyond the area delineated on the topo map. The dune boundaries have been clipped to the GWRC Scientific Wetlands (2019) layer wherever practical to do so. Some wetland areas, not captured in the Scientific Wetlands layer, have also been excluded from the Scientific Dunes layer. Allowance was made for the mapping of estuaries. Site names acknowledge the report by Partridge TR 1192. The sand dune and beach vegetation inventory of New Zealand. I. North Island. DSIR Land Resources Scientific Report No. 15. Where dunes are not listed in this report, their nomenclature has been derived from nearest recognisable feature mapped in the NZ 1:50,000 Topographic Map series (e.g. beaches, watercourses or townships).
Groundtruthing of the delineation was completed by Matthew Ward of Restore in 2020/21.