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Research

Our world-leading research projects.

NIWA researchers are developing a physics-informed and artificial intelligence (AI)-driven method to vastly reduce the computer power needed to provide accurate climate change projections.
The development of updated national climate projections for Aotearoa New Zealand is underway and expected to be completed in 2024.
NIWA and the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) are working together to develop a new drought forecasting tool.
NIWA is developing a national river flow forecasting tool for New Zealand that aims to support and strengthen our planning for and response to extreme rainfall events.
Clouds over the ocean, and how they trap or emit radiation from the sun, are partly influenced by the biology, biogeochemistry and physics of the surface ocean below.
The Climate Changes, Impacts & Implications project ran from 2012 to 2016 and aimed to update and improve projections of climate trends, variability and extremes across New Zealand out to 2100.
NIWA’s research into forecasting weather systems aims to increase the resilience of New Zealand communities to weather-related hazards.
Our Future Climate New Zealand is an interactive website that lets you to look at projections for a number of climate variables for New Zealand between now and 2100.
Does climate change affect the position of the Subtropical Front around New Zealand? This has important consequences for New Zealand's climate and biological productivity.
NIWA has recently created synthetic, multi-year, 10-minute wind datasets at 15 wind farm sites across New Zealand. These will be used by the Electricity Commission to model the impact of wind farms on the national grid.
This project demonstrates how to assess high value alternative land-use options by means of a quantitative analysis of the growing potential of selected niche crops and tree species.

NIWA is developing guidelines and advice to help coastal communities adapt to climate change.

Developing probabilistic scenarios of expected future regional climate changes.
Climate Present and Past is a core-funded project under NIWA's National Climate Centre. It aims to explore historical climate data and track past changes in climate through a range of approaches.
Regional-scale climate projections assist local authorities to assess risks presented by climate change now and prepare their communities for the future impacts.

This project demonstrates how to use the latest global climate forecasts to predict changes in river flows in New Zealand, including changes in size or frequency of future floods.

 

By analysing air trapped in ancient ice we can see how wetlands and permafrosts responded to warming periods in the past, and help predict what will happen in the future.

These studies extended NIWA's regional climate modelling work, addressing future changes in drought risk and extreme winds under a warming climate.