End outcome 2: Availability of land information

What we seek to achieve

This end outcome ensures the collection, maintenance and availability of land information to support the:

• safety and security of New Zealand
• growth of an inclusive, innovative economy, and
• preservation and enhancement of our society, culture and environment.

Why this is a priority

'Availability of land information' contributes to the Government's theme of 'economic transformation' via the sub-theme of 'world class infrastructure', and to the theme of 'national identity' via the sub-themes of 'who we are', 'what we do', 'where we live', and 'how we are seen by the world'.

In a knowledge economy, the availability of information that can be trusted, understood and aggregated enables and improves decision-making, lowers risks, improves certainty and provides business opportunities. Government plays a significant role because the market cannot always generate or provide the necessary information.

This end outcome also contributes to the Government's theme of 'families – young and old' by ensuring the accuracy of land information for emergency purposes, and hence, safer communities.

Achieving this end outcome means land information is:

• discoverable (ie indexed and able to be found)
• traceable back to its source
• accessible conveniently and at reasonable cost
• fit for the purpose for which it was collected
• interoperable where appropriate (ie able to be integrated or overlaid with other land information data), and
• collected once, but able to be used many times.

Intermediate outcome

The key intermediate outcome that contributes to the achievement of this end outcome is convenient access to integrated land information.

Why this intermediate outcome

LINZ is responsible for the regulatory framework and system used to define property rights in land by survey and by recording ownership of title. An effective system for defining and transacting land defines property rights in terms of legal authority and the physical extent of rights on the ground. This enables economic activity and investment (see end outcome 1 on page 17).

However, this is strongly linked to the availability of that land information. 'Convenient access to integrated land information' supports and enables that activity and provides certainty. Knowing who owns those rights through convenient access to information enables decision-making and trading. It also plays a key role in providing confidence in and about those rights.

Measuring 'availability of land information'

Changes in the state of this end outcome will be measured by:

• changes in the discoverability and availability of land information, and
• measuring satisfaction levels of those who use and rely on LINZ's land information.

Achieving the end outcome

Land market leadership

LINZ's key leadership focus in this area is developing sound policy and legislative frameworks for making land information available, easily accessible and suitably priced.

Our priority here is to:

• support the introduction and implementation of new legislation to improve and extend the statutory framework for the place-naming functions undertaken by the New Zealand Geographic Board and to make that information publicly available
• investigate the NZTopo database in terms of content, detail and positional accuracy, currency, metadata, and product consistency (this is in alignment with LINZ's Topographic Information Strategy 2005-2010), and
• provide ongoing support for the New Zealand Geospatial Office and the development and implementation of the Geospatial Strategy work programme.

Optimal regulation

All topographic and hydrographic regulatory interventions have been recently reviewed. Our focus over 2008/09 will be to complete this rationalisation.

LINZ has also implemented compliance assurance based on a systems and controls methodology in the topographic and hydrographic areas. A review in 2007/08 of the extent of the regulatory functions needed in these areas will be implemented over 2008/09.

e-delivery excellence

The strategic goal of 'e-delivery excellence' has underpinned a number of recent initiatives in the hydrographic and topographic areas, including:

• development of a modern infrastructure to support the capture, processing and dissemination of hydrographic data, and
• a needs analysis for enhancing our infrastructure for the collection, maintenance and dissemination of topographic information. Our objective is to ensure LINZ obtains data and provides information in a way that primary customers need it.

In 2008/09 our focus will be on:

• capturing and translating hydrographic metadata and core datasets into the new digital systems and designing business processes that enable us to make best use of the hydrographic systemm
• enabling the provision of hydrographic products and services through electronic channels
• reviewing the topographic needs analysis to identify whether the infrastructure in place will enable us to meet the needs of primary customers in the future, and
• continuing development of the 1:50,000 Topo50 map series, involving the redevelopment and provision of the New Zealand Transverse Mercator data used and relied upon by primary customers. The new series is planned for release in the spring of 2009.

In the survey and titles areas, our focus will be to:

• enable greater access to land information through Landonline, and
• ensure the preservation of, and access to, historic and important paper records through implementing the core paper records strategy developed in 2007/08.

Expert decision-making

The primary focus for LINZ in this area is that a territorial authority's proposed values for rating (the district valuation role) meets the required standards, and is available for property owners.

During the last 18 months, LINZ has focused on territorial authorities undertaking more activities themselves. In particular, we encouraged them to provide a 'preliminary' view that their district valuation role meets the standards. We will continue to promote this approach with a view to having territorial authorities not only self-comply, but potentially selfcertify that the values are fit for use.

In addition, we have introduced risk-based dataset validation methodologies and increased automation based on robust business rules, which have resulted in reduced rework and faster turn-around times for survey and title lodgements.

Measuring the intermediate outcome

Outputs contributing to end outcome 2

The following output classes link to the strategic goals and priorities within this outcome set.