James is a Senior Researcher with Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research based in Lincoln, New Zealand. He has 40 years’ experience in environmental research, geodata and geospatial analysis in New Zealand and the Pacific. His focus has been on soils and landscapes, particularly in the high country and hill country of New Zealand. James has expertise in working with spatial datasets to address a wide range of issues in New Zealand and the Pacific.

James led the Pacific Soil Digital Portal component of the project. This focussed on making existing soils maps, data, and knowledge available in a more accessible and understandable way through a map-based web portal. Most soils knowledge was locked away in scientific reports that are difficult to find and hard to understand for non-soil scientists. Our vision was to put this soils knowledge into the hands of farmers and the extension officers, to raise awareness of the importance of soils, how those soils vary across the landscape, and to make it easier for land users to factor soils and nutrient management into their decision-making processes. Click here to view the Digital Soils Portal.