Greater accessibility to public land information

New Zealand Walking Access Commission

Media release

27 June 2013

Greater accessibility to public land information

Outdoors enthusiasts may soon have even more access to information about publicly accessible land, thanks to the release of the Government’s public access mapping information to website and app developers.

The information, which includes public reserves, conservation land, Crown land, legal roads, marginal strips and esplanade strips, was released as a direct map feed by the New Zealand Walking Access Commission (NZWAC) yesterday. Developers and others wanting to use the information can plug into the map feed on the Commission’s website, www.walkingaccess.govt.nz.

NZWAC Chief Executive Mark Neeson said the release would enable website and app developers to make use of the public access information for their own mapping projects. The information could also be of use to researchers and other geographic information systems professionals, including central and local government staff across the country, he said.

“This new data feed will improve access to government data for the public and business, in line with the Government’s Information and Communications Technology strategy. It will facilitate new research, better central and local government decision making on land issues and development of some truly innovative new mapping websites and apps by private companies.”

The mapping information available on the Commission’s website feed is sourced from Land Information New Zealand’s Parcel Database and processed by the Commission. It is currently used on the Commission’s free nationwide Walking Access Mapping System website (www.wams.org.nz) to help people identify land the public can access.

In coming months, the Commission will make the information available as a shapefile download, in addition to the direct feed released yesterday. The download, which will be updated monthly, will allow geographic information professionals to download the public access area dataset to their local systems for geospatial analysis.

ENDS