New Zealand Transverse Mercator 2000 (NZTM2000)

New Zealand Transverse Mercator 2000 (NZTM2000) is the projection used for New Zealand's Topo50 1:50,000 and other small scale mapping. Spatial data users are encouraged to use NZTM2000 where a projection is required within mainland New Zealand.

NZTM2000 uses a Transverse Mercator projection and is based on the NZGD2000 datum using the GRS80 reference ellipsoid. It was chosen because it is an internationally recognised type of projection that exhibits a low level of distortion at its east-west extents. The projection is only applicable for the main New Zealand island group (North, South, Stewart/Rakiura and the smaller coastal islands). Separate projections are defined for the New Zealand's offshore islands and for its continental shelf.

NZTM2000 is formally defined in the LINZ standard LINZS25002 (Standard for New Zealand Geodetic Datum 2000 Projections). The key parameters from this standard are summarised below:

Name: New Zealand Transverse Mercator 2000

Abbreviation: NZTM2000

Projection type: Transverse Mercator

Reference ellipsoid: GRS80

Datum: NZGD2000

Origin latitude: 0° 00' 00" South

Origin longitude / central meridian: 173° 00' 00" East

False Northing: 10,000,000 metres North

False Easting: 1,600,000 metres East

Central meridian scale factor: 0.9996

The predecessor projection to NZTM2000 was New Zealand Map Grid (NZMG). NZMG was based on the NZGD49 datum. More information about converting coordinates between the NZTM2000 and NZMG projections is available on the coordinate conversion pages.

"C" language source code is available to facilitate the incorporation of the NZTM2000 projection in the development of software applications.