Council GIS for hazards, planning and property
Council data becomes most useful when the question is explicit.
Whenua or papakāinga screening
Common council layers include district-plan zones and overlays, modelled flood/coastal/landslide hazards, roads and access context, three-waters infrastructure, building/consent context and rating/valuation property.
Combine these with Māori land data, current LINZ parcels and terrain. Use the papakāinga worked example for an end-to-end pattern.
Marae resilience
Council and regional data can add flood and tsunami context, road/bridge dependencies, evacuation zones, water/infrastructure context and recent or historical aerial imagery.
The marae's own operational asset information belongs in the local project rather than being inferred from a council map. See marae emergency mapping.
Taiao and awa
Regional councils frequently publish river/catchment layers, environmental monitoring sites, groundwater zones and wells, wetlands, consents, water quality and flow, pest/biodiversity programmes and coastal data.
Use Freshwater and LAWA where national comparability is useful, then return to council sources for local detail and metadata.
Planning data
Check whether a layer represents an operative plan, proposed plan, plan change, non-statutory information viewer or technical study/scenario.
Auckland Council, for example, distinguishes non-statutory GeoMaps information from statutory Unitary Plan planning maps. QLDC directs users to ePlans for current district-plan mapping rather than treating older PDF maps as the current source.
Hazard data
Record at least:
publisher
hazard type
model/study
scenario or AEP
climate/sea-level assumption if relevant
publication/update date
map/service URL
A 1% AEP flood extent, tsunami evacuation zone and historical flood observation are not interchangeable hazard polygons.
Northland Regional Council's hazard maps include region-wide river flood and coastal hazard products. Southland has a dedicated Natural Hazards Portal alongside SouthMaps. Waikato Regional Council provides a Regional Hazards Portal and coastal inundation tool from its maps page.
Property data
A council property viewer can combine LINZ parcel/title references, address, rating/valuation units, council building/consent records and water services.
Do not call the displayed polygon the title without checking the source relationship. See Parcel, title, property and address.
Historical research
Some councils provide historical aerial imagery and archives. Hutt City links historical aerial mapping from 1941–2021 and holds maps, plans and aerial photographs in its archives. Marlborough provides historic aerial-photo and LiDAR routes from its maps section.
These local sources can fill gaps between national archives and modern council GIS.
Last reviewed: 27 August 2026