A joint declaration regarding a unified approach to: Principles of Environmental Data Architecture in Aotearoa NZ

On 10 August, 2021, the Biological Heritage National Science Challenge’s Eco-index programme facilitated an online workshop across various government agencies, universities, CRIs, councils and businesses (see logos below) to explore options for improving Aotearoa New Zealand’s currently fragmented environmental data2 architecture. It was determined through this workshop that a unified approach is needed to overcome issues to improve cross-agency coordination for managing, storing, and accessing environmental data. This determination aligns with the
conclusions of the 2019 PCE report, Focusing Aotearoa New Zealand’s environmental reporting system.

Based on the workshop kōrero, five key principles emerged that participating entities established
common agreement upon.