National elevation data improvement is a priority for Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) and is a significant project within the Mapping New Zealand 2025 initiative. The data is crucial for modelling, policy and decision-making on resilience and climate change, water, urban change, and optimising land use etc. LINZ is very keen to work with co-funding partners on increasing the amount of national coverage, and to discuss opportunities for regional scale LiDAR. This work would include regional and local councils, and central government providing co-funding to allow for data capture at a greater scale than any one agency could afford or justify.
Elevation data that is captured as part of LINZ’s role in coordinating national LiDAR is made available through the LINZ Data Service as 1m Digital Elevation Models, and the source point cloud data is available from OpenTopography.
In reference to the map, Nationally consistent LiDAR data is available for the areas in green, and capture and supply of data from the orange areas is in progress and will be made available in the future. Projects in progress include all of Northland, Auckland and Gisborne regions.
