A significant update to S-map was released last Thursday, 21 August 2025 – the final update from the partnership between Manaaki Whenua, MPI and 12 regional councils.
The S-map Expansion project was a 5-year work programme (until June 2025), with a $6.25 million investment from the Government to map our most valuable soils, vital to national economic, environmental, and social well-being.
This update includes 838,000 ha of new mapping in Northland, Waikato, Taranaki, Manawatu, Marlborough, Tasman, Canterbury and Otago. Over the five years, 2.6 million hectares of new and upgraded soil mapping has been published on the SmapOnline website. This is almost double the original programme’s key performance indicator of 1.4 million hectares of additional S-map coverage.
The national coverage of S-map has increased to 11.8 million ha, or 44.3%. Increased coverage and improvements have been primarily focused on multiple use (LUC 1-4) land, with 78.2% of this land now having S-map coverage.
The programme has supported building strong relationships with regional councils, with 12 councils co-funding to increase S-map coverage in their regions. Partnering with regional councils has achieved a co-funding contribution to the project of $4.325 million, plus more than $400,000 of in-kind contributions, over triple the original programme key performance indicator of $1.25 million co-funding.
