title: Showcasing the TAIAO project: providing resources for machine learning from images of New Zealand's natural environment

authors: Lim, Nick Jin Sean

subjects: computer science

abstract: Proper management of the earth's natural resources is imperative to combat further degradation of the natural environment. However, the environmental datasets necessary for informed resource planning and conservation can be costly to collect and annotate. Consequently, there is a lack of publicly available datasets, particularly annotated image datasets relevant for environmental conservation, that can be used for the evaluation of machine learning algorithms to determine their applicability in real-world scenarios. To address this, the Time-evolving Data Science and Artificial Intelligence for Advanced Open Environmental Science (TAIAO) project in New Zealand aims to provide a collection of datasets and accompanying example notebooks for their analysis. This paper showcases three New Zealand-based annotated image datasets that form part of the collection. The first dataset contains annotated images of various predator species, mainly small invasive mammals, taken using low-light camera traps predominantly at night. The second provides aerial photography of the Waikato region in New Zealand, in which stands of Kahikatea (a native New Zealand tree) have been marked up using manual segmentation. The third is a dataset containing orthorectified high-resolution aerial photography, paired with satellite imagery taken by Sentinel-2. Additionally, the TAIAO web platform also contains a collated list of other datasets provided and licensed by our data partners that may be of interest to other researchers.

text: Showcasing the TAIAO project: providing resources for machine learning from images of New Zealand's natural environment Proper management of the earth's natural resources is imperative to combat further degradation of the natural environment. However, the environmental datasets necessary for informed resource planning and conservation can be costly to collect and annotate. Consequently, there is a lack of publicly available datasets, particularly annotated image datasets relevant for environmental conservation, that can be used for the evaluation of machine learning algorithms to determine their applicability in real-world scenarios. To address this, the Time-evolving Data Science and Artificial Intelligence for Advanced Open Environmental Science (TAIAO) project in New Zealand aims to provide a collection of datasets and accompanying example notebooks for their analysis. This paper showcases three New Zealand-based annotated image datasets that form part of the collection. The first dataset contains annotated images of various predator species, mainly small invasive mammals, taken using low-light camera traps predominantly at night. The second provides aerial photography of the Waikato region in New Zealand, in which stands of Kahikatea (a native New Zealand tree) have been marked up using manual segmentation. The third is a dataset containing orthorectified high-resolution aerial photography, paired with satellite imagery taken by Sentinel-2. Additionally, the TAIAO web platform also contains a collated list of other datasets provided and licensed by our data partners that may be of interest to other researchers.

year: 2022

title: Intra-conference and Post-conference Tour Guides, International Inter-INQUA Field Conference and Workshop on Tephrochronology, Loess, and Paleopedology

authors: Lowe, David J.

abstract: New Zealand consists of a cluster of islands, the three largest being North, South, and Stewart, in the southwest Pacific Ocean. They have a total land area of about 270 000 km2 (similar to that of the British Isles or Japan). The islands are the small emergent parts of a much larger submarine continental mass (Fig. 0.1) that was rafted away from Australia and Antarctica by sea-floor spreading in the proto-Tasman Sea between 85 and 60 Ma. Much of this New Zealand subcontinent is a remnant of the former eastern margin of Gondwanaland, the ancient southern supercontinent. The mainland islands form a long, narrow, NE-SW trending archipelago bisected by an active, obliquely converging, boundary between the Australian and Pacific lithospheric plates (Fig. 0.2), which has evolved over the last 25 million years (Kamp 1992). The plate boundary is marked by active seismicity and volcanic arcs, illustrating New Zealand's position as part of the Circum-Pacific Mobile Belt -the so-called "Pacific Ring of Fire". The NE-SW trend of the modem plate boundary cuts across mainly NW-SE oriented structural features inherited from earlier (mid-Cretaceous) rifting events.

text: Intra-conference and Post-conference Tour Guides, International Inter-INQUA Field Conference and Workshop on Tephrochronology, Loess, and Paleopedology New Zealand consists of a cluster of islands, the three largest being North, South, and Stewart, in the southwest Pacific Ocean. They have a total land area of about 270 000 km2 (similar to that of the British Isles or Japan). The islands are the small emergent parts of a much larger submarine continental mass (Fig. 0.1) that was rafted away from Australia and Antarctica by sea-floor spreading in the proto-Tasman Sea between 85 and 60 Ma. Much of this New Zealand subcontinent is a remnant of the former eastern margin of Gondwanaland, the ancient southern supercontinent. The mainland islands form a long, narrow, NE-SW trending archipelago bisected by an active, obliquely converging, boundary between the Australian and Pacific lithospheric plates (Fig. 0.2), which has evolved over the last 25 million years (Kamp 1992). The plate boundary is marked by active seismicity and volcanic arcs, illustrating New Zealand's position as part of the Circum-Pacific Mobile Belt -the so-called "Pacific Ring of Fire". The NE-SW trend of the modem plate boundary cuts across mainly NW-SE oriented structural features inherited from earlier (mid-Cretaceous) rifting events.

year: 1994-02-01

title: Tracking patterns of tribal identification in the New Zealand census, 1991 to 2006

authors: Kukutai, Tahu

abstract: Despite the growing political and economic importance of iwi in New Zealand, little attention has been given to their changing demography. Using data from the New Zealand Census of Population and Dwellings, we analyse the growth trajectories of four iwi - Ngāi Tahu, Waikato, Ngāti Awa and Tūhoe - between 1991 and 2006. We find a great deal of variation in iwi growth between censuses and over the entire focal period. In most instances, iwi birth cohorts increased rather than decreased in size, and gains from “new” members were especially marked among children, the middle-aged and women. The findings confirm the importance of accounting for non-demographic factors when projecting and planning for future iwi population growth.

text: Tracking patterns of tribal identification in the New Zealand census, 1991 to 2006 Despite the growing political and economic importance of iwi in New Zealand, little attention has been given to their changing demography. Using data from the New Zealand Census of Population and Dwellings, we analyse the growth trajectories of four iwi - Ngāi Tahu, Waikato, Ngāti Awa and Tūhoe - between 1991 and 2006. We find a great deal of variation in iwi growth between censuses and over the entire focal period. In most instances, iwi birth cohorts increased rather than decreased in size, and gains from “new” members were especially marked among children, the middle-aged and women. The findings confirm the importance of accounting for non-demographic factors when projecting and planning for future iwi population growth.

year: 2013