Geospatial Goldmine gets Better
Monday 5 December 2011, 6:50PM
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Wellington City Council's geospatial 'goldmine' of free and low-cost publicly-accessible information has just been improved.
Mayor Wade-Brown welcomes the new improvements, saying the tools are a great help for planning and development purposes.
"There's a fascinating range of information about our city, available at your fingertips for free or next-to-nothing," says Mayor Wade-Brown.
"There are obvious commercial benefits for this but also anyone curious about how Wellington is now, and how it used to be, will find this information quite appealing.
"We are particularly excited that the Thomas Ward maps are included," says Mayor Wade-Brown. "Completed in 1892, they are a snapshot of how our city was and are a great source of information for those with a historian bent.
"With the new layer see-through and overlying the current aerial photos, you get a fascinating view of how we have changed."
As part of Council's ongoing drive to improve access to Council's information, the external map viewer WebMap has seen a few recent changes.
"You can now simplify your view by being able to turn road names on and off, get an idea of how far the nearest bus stop, shop or other point of interests with the measure tool and get coordinates by clicking on the map," says Mayor Wade-Brown.
Geospatial information is location-based data than can be applied to many public and social projects. Architects, planners, engineers, students or people interested in current and historical city information will find this information useful.
For example, the data includes aerial photographs of the city, contour lines, building footprints, and locations of Council facilities (eg swimming pools, libraries, public toilets, walking tracks, parks and reserves).
The Council is selective about what information has been released. Incomplete datasets or information subject to licensing restrictions is not included.
To access the information, go to:
Alternatively, go to:
Wellington City Aerial Imagery - Koordinates website
If you want to check Council maps but don't need to download geospatial information then visit:
The new data has been made available with the help of local company Koordinates Ltd, which hosts geospatial information on behalf of the likes of Land Information New Zealand and the Ministry for the Environment.
Koordinates provides hosting to the City Council for free - and most data is free for the customer - however there is a small fee for aerial photography to help cover storage costs.