The Otago region covers around 32,000 km² of land making it the third largest region in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Since settlement, land use and cover has changed dramatically with wetlands drained and forests cleared for the primary industries that still power this country. Yet, even in the last decades land use has continued to change. Since the first land use map in 1990 derived from the Land Cover Database (LCDB), land use has diversified with an expansion of land managed for conservation and an expansion of both dairying and horticulture.

While the use of land in Otago is diverse, it can be summarised into 8 broad categories:

Land use information is important to understand the needs of the Otago community and helps us identify how different land uses can affect our environment.