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Project Mahitahi

Pattern: catchment restoration programme → spatial work sites and ecological context → long-running public StoryMap.

Project Mahitahi was a 2020–2025 collaboration restoring the Mahitahi/Maitai Valley ecosystem in Whakatū Nelson. Nelson City Council's current project page identifies partners including the Kotahitanga mō te Taiao Alliance, Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Rārua, Ngāti Koata Trust, Te Ātiawa Manawhenua Ki Te Tau Ihu Trust and Ngāti Kuia.

The Project Mahitahi StoryMap remains a public record of the catchment, restoration sites, history, ecology and project mahi.

Why it is useful as a GIS case​

The spatial story is organised ki uta ki tai along an awa/catchment rather than around council property boundaries. Restoration work can be followed upstream through mapped sites while historical, ecological and iwi/community context remains attached to the catchment.

That makes it useful for taiao projects where the geography of the awa should organise the information.

Publicly documented restoration data​

Nelson City Council's current project summary records results including:

  • 40 hectares of weed control
  • 150,000 native plants across 19 hectares
  • 128 hectares of pest-animal control
  • more than 17 km of crack-willow control

These programme metrics make sense when linked back to where work occurred and how sites relate within the catchment.

StoryMap pattern​

The public StoryMap combines:

  • catchment/awa context
  • restoration locations
  • before/after photographs
  • historical material
  • ecological information
  • project-partner stories
  • public opportunities to experience/understand the awa

This is more useful than a static annual-report map because the project has a spatial narrative and can be revisited as sites change.

A reusable restoration data model​

Another programme could use:

restoration_area
  restoration_id
  work_type
  start_date
  area_ha
  status

monitoring_site
  site_id
  restoration_id
  geometry

repeat_observation
  observation_id
  site_id
  date
  measure / condition
  photo

The Awa restoration worked example provides downloadable synthetic templates for this pattern.

Map design lesson​

For an awa-based project, let the awa and tributaries form the visual skeleton. Parcels and roads can be useful context, but they do not need to dominate the map simply because those layers are easy to obtain.

Use different products for different audiences:

  • operational field map
  • restoration progress map
  • public StoryMap
  • technical monitoring dataset

One map does not have to do all four jobs.

What not to copy blindly​

Project Mahitahi's governance, iwi partnerships, restoration priorities and cultural context belong to that catchment. The reusable part is the spatial programme pattern: stable project sites, repeated evidence, catchment context and communication linked to actual mahi.

Primary sources​

Last reviewed: 26 August 2026

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