LINZ responsibilities

As New Zealand's national mapping organisation, LINZ is responsible for collecting, maintaining, managing and making available an authoritative national record of the features of the natural and built environments.

This record is required to meet the needs of national safety and security, defence, emergency services and the constitutional framework.

In our Statement of Intent for 2005/06, we define our responsibility for topographic information as follows:

"LINZ is responsible for national topographic mapping at 1:50,000 and broader scales. It undertakes this mapping for defence and emergency services and national constitutional purposes. LINZ makes its topographic data and mapping available via the Internet and in printed form through retailers. It also makes its bulk digital topographic data available directly from LINZ or through resellers."

We also have the responsibility to consult and work with others in the geospatial information community to determine and provide advice on the standards for, and quality of, topographic data required to meet the present and future needs of the nation.

LINZ topographic data will be required to provide a framework to which other geospatial data in New Zealand can be referenced. This is a first step towards ensuring a high level of interoperability between different sets of geospatial data.