Using a ‘kitchen sink’ approach to forest hydrology research

The five-year Forest Flows programme has improved our understanding of what is happening to the water in New Zealand’s forest soils – and has helped us answer pressing community questions. The programme, which ended in June 2024, created and used cutting-edge technology to capture more than 390 million data points across nine sites around New Zealand.

Long held myths around water and pine forests were able to be busted, with the results from Forest Flows. Being in the right place at the right time, one of the research sites in Mahurangi, just north of Auckland, was also able to capture what happened to the water during the extreme rainfall events in 2023.

This world leading research captured the attention of NASA,  a joint feasibility study on satellite monitoring of soil moisture in the Far North was completed in 2024 using methods developed in Forest Flows.

Scion senior scientist and programme leader Dean Meason is really proud of what the programme achieved, “spreading the word further, that’s the next challenge” he says.

This research was funded by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment Endeavour Fund. Extended monitoring and data collection at Forest Flows sites is ongoing and supported by Forest Growers Levy Trust and the forestry industry.

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Source & image credit: Scion