Surface water extent

The Māori community has Ngakoaohia River running through the customary lands and currently there are no records or knowledge of the river, so the community is not able to use it for any particular function. There is lack of understanding historical land use and land cover surrounding the river. Historical data is essential for understanding where things were planted or where was vegetation in order to be able to decide what plant are suitable for our location. So, the planting will help with the land, stabilising the riverbanks and help with plant life as well. We must work in unity with our environment, so historical data will help not to make ill informed decisions that will be detrimental to the environment.

We do not have long term studies on how land-use and water sources have changed within the Ëyuujk community. There is less water in my community but is not a dire situation as yet and we do not want to get to a point where there is no more water because we are destroying the forest, or we are not valuing the natural resources before it is too late. We would like to make a historical reconstruction on how the land cover was before and to predict the river levels or water that remains available in some of the sources. This can be linked with a geographic study too because a lot of these sources have a meaning for religious purposes in the community.