Authoritative for what?
Authoritative is only useful when followed by for what purpose?
A source can be excellent evidence for one question and the wrong source for another.
| Source | Strong for | Does not automatically settle |
|---|---|---|
| LINZ cadastral parcels | current cadastral parcel geometry and identifiers | whakapapa, local land relationships or the full meaning of whenua |
| Māori Land Court / Pātaka Whenua records | Māori land record and Court context | every current on-the-ground feature or local account |
| council hazard model | the scenario, method and planning context represented by that published model | every past or future event on the whenua |
| NZ Gazetteer | official naming status and recorded geographic names | every local, historical or preferred ingoa wāhi |
| Stats NZ geography | statistical reporting units | rohe, hapū relationships or natural communities of place |
| historical plan or map | evidence of what that source represented at that time | modern geometry or unquestioned historical truth |
| iwi, hapū, whānau or local source | local knowledge, relationships and context within its kaupapa | the statutory purpose of a Crown dataset |
| field observation | what was observed at a place and time | the complete history of the place |
Use several sources without flattening them
A whenua investigation might legitimately use a Māori land block, LINZ parcel, historical survey plan, current aerial image and local kōrero at the same time. The job is not to choose one winner. It is to know what each contributes.
Record provenance with the layer
At minimum keep:
- provider or source relationship
- dataset or document name
- date or version
- what the source was created to represent
- transformations made in the GIS
- known limitations
See Provenance and source checking and keep those source fields in the project spreadsheet, database or GeoPackage rather than relying on a generic downloadable template.
Related pages
- GIS data for Aotearoa
- Māori land
- Place names
- Māori land blocks versus parcels
- Things GIS cannot represent well
Last reviewed: 3 September 2026