As with all models, Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research's S-map tool updates regularly to ensure the best estimates of soil properties are provided.
OverseerFM relies on S-map soil data where it is available to provide users with soil property information.
S-map updates do not constitute a change to Overseer and so there is no Version change in OverseerFM when the S-map model updates. This means that your soil data doesn't automatically update with S-map updates.
Given this, we have introduced a “Check for S-map soil updates” button within each farm account.
This button can be found at the top of the "Analyses" section when this is opened and enables users to:
- Check if there are any S-map soil data updates for the analyses on the farm
- Review the potential impact of any S-map soil data updates on model results
- Update the S-map soil data for analyses with available updates.
When users do choose to update the S-map soils, they can update them by analysis.
To maintain a like for like comparison, changes should be made to all analyses which need to be comparable e.g. Baseline and current state Year End analyses.
Regarding what will be acceptable for compliance or consent reporting, it is for Regional Councils and other reporting organisations to decide whether they will require analyses to be updated to the latest S-map parameters.
NB. If an analyses did not use S-map to determine the soil of the block (ie only soil group/order) this function does not look at those soils - so, if users believe that S-map has become available for a particular area, they should go to a block within the analysis and use the "Load S-map data" button to check for any updates.