Living Landscapes

Accurate measurement of permeable and impermeable surfaces, buildings, native plantings, ornamental and food production gardens will give an overview of the school's habitats. From this a school can form a record of the living landscape and identify where improvements can be made.

What data will we collect?

• The proportion of landscape types at your school.
• The area of Buildings, Paving, Grass and Garden type. Garden type will be broken down into Ornamental, Food gardens and Native plantings. 
• The number of large trees and fruit and nut producing trees at your school.
• How much native restoration is happening. 

How much time will it take?

Depending on the age of your students, whether or not you integrate this measurement into geography or maths lessons, and the size of the team doing the data collection, you could gather this data in a day or spread it over a longer period. The first year of measurement will take the most time. Once you have made a base plan of the school with the major measurements recorded on it, data collection in future years will be minimal. You will only need to make adjustments to your landscape type data if any changes such as new buildings or extended gardens have been made.

You will also need to set some time aside after planting season to record how many native trees were planted that year. Your data should be recorded on your Living Landscapes Annual Summary.

You will need:

• An aerial photo of the school and property maps.
• Access to a photocopier and some grid-lined paper.
• Trundle wheels and tape measures.
• Calculators, rulers, colouring pencil.

What will be in our Living Landscapes Report?

Data collection for Living Landscapes involves calculating the area of the different landscape types at your school. Your report will summarise this data giving you a graphical snapshot of the landscape type mix at your school. Over time as you submit more data you will get trend information showing any progress you have made to create a more living landscape. You will get comparisons between other schools to see how other New Zealand schools measure up.

- LIVING LANDSCAPES Annual Summary.pdf

- LIVING LANDSCAPES Data Collection Sheets.pdf

- LIVING LANDSCAPES Teacher Support Activities.pdf