Who's got it better than us? We get to swim around in data, look for patterns, reveal truth and pave the way for understanding. All while breaking out the crayons and coloring in. In this presentation we'll take a look at some of our ideas of what it means to feel and understand a place and how to describe it to others.
LAST-MODIFIED:20260715T053403Z SEQUENCE:623269 LOCATION:Vivian Street 139\, 6040 Wellington\, Wellington\, New Zealand GEO:-41.29560640;174.77557020 X-ROOMS:Lecture Theatre 1 X-LOCATION-DISPLAYNAME:VUW Te Aro [Lecture Theatre 1] X-ACCESS:1 X-HITS:74 X-COLOR:530000 X-SHOW-END-TIME:1 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Pacific/Auckland:20260826T103000 DTEND;TZID=Pacific/Auckland:20260826T105000 UID:BA8A6E96-4167-4BE8-A75F-936579EECDC2 SUMMARY:Morning Break CREATED:20260708T005610Z DTSTAMP:20260708T005610Z URL:https://cartography.org.nz/geocart2026/schedule/am-break-1 LAST-MODIFIED:20260708T070534Z SEQUENCE:22164 LOCATION:Vivian Street 139\, 6040 Wellington\, Wellington\, New Zealand GEO:-41.29560640;174.77557020 X-ROOMS:Breakout Space - WIG101 X-LOCATION-DISPLAYNAME:VUW Te Aro [Breakout Space - WIG101] X-ACCESS:1 X-HITS:8 X-COLOR:707070 X-SHOW-END-TIME:1 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Pacific/Auckland:20260826T105000 DTEND;TZID=Pacific/Auckland:20260826T121000 UID:CAFDCF14-7B14-41C3-B2A4-76AEE8065217 SUMMARY:Session 1B: Place and Naming CREATED:20260708T003534Z DTSTAMP:20260708T003534Z URL:https://cartography.org.nz/geocart2026/schedule/session-place-naming DESCRIPTION:\N\N\N\N10:50 \N\N\NThe first map of the city of Wellington?: Heaphy's plan of Britannia\NRobin Skinner (Victoria University of Wellington)\N\NView abstract\NThe "Plan of the City of Britannia in Lambton Harbour, Port Nicholson, New Zealand" by nineteen-year-old Charles Heaphy held at Te Papa Tongarewa is often described as "the earliest known map of Wellington". This paper attempts to place the plan in the context of the activities of the New Zealand Company in the early 1840s. It is argued that, while this is the oldest surviving plan, it is in fact the second plan. It was produced as an archival copy.\NFurther information was added over time, with some significant annotations being discernible. These amendments enable an extended reading of events, offering insight into the workings of the settlement, and the exchanges with the company officials in London, in the colony's first months.\NFinally, the paper speculates on the how the plan survived, while the original plan and surveyors' initial terrain records have been lost.\N\N\N\N\N\N11:10\N\N\NThe sea, or not the sea, that is the question: Mapping the Coastal Marine Area\NKarl Majorhazi (Te Tari Whakatau)\N\NView abstract\NGenerations of spatial professionals have relied on the 1:50,000 scale coastline to delineate the boundary between land and sea. Modern applications and technology demand more accurate, higher resolution coastlines. One example of this is the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Act 2011 which uses the Coastal Marine Area (CMA) as the legally defined boundary for recognising applications for Customary Marine Title and Protected Customary Rights. The CMA is defined by the line of Mean High-Water Springs (MHWS), the 12 nautical mile limit of the territorial sea, and an agreed CMA boundary at rivers. Te Tari Whakatau have integrated LINZ's new LIDAR-derived Pilot MHWS dataset and local government's river boundaries to create a pilot version of the entire Coastal Marine Area. This presentation will explain how each of these elements are used, the decisions made, and the dataset's limitations. \N\N\N\N\N\N11:30\N\N\NThe review of New Zealand's Antarctic place names\NChristopher Stephens (Toitū Te Whenua Land Information NZ)\N\NView abstract\NNew Zealand has maintained a continuous presence in Antarctica since the 1950s. In anticipation of new place naming by the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1956-58), in 1956 the New Zealand Geographic Board received authority to consider and approve Antarctic place names. With the establishment of Scott Base in 1957, government led, university based, and other NZ expeditions set out to investigate, survey, geologise, map, and inevitably, give new names, across the Ross Sea region.\NInternationally, New Zealand and equivalent naming authorities from other nations operating in Antarctica are encouraged to submit their names to the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research’s (SCAR’s) Composite Gazetteer of Antarctica (https://placenames.aq/). This database, mooted in 1992 and first published in 1998, continues to provide valuable spatial information for those working in Antarctica. It also provides international visibility of all named places, in part to discourage countries from approving new names for already named features.\NIn practice, Antarctic place naming information has carried a legacy of imprecision. For example, Antarctic place names were typically recorded to the nearest arc minute of accuracy - positions could be up to a kilometre from the physical feature (depending on the latitude), if they were even accurate in the first place. Likewise, issues of typos, transpositions, misinterpretation and cartographic errors, have made Antarctic place naming information sometimes ambiguous, occasionally fraught.\NSince 2017, the Board has worked to review all Antarctic Place Names, first confirming the original naming and intent through published texts and its archives, then making improvements using the latest geospatial data products. The review as of 2026 is for the most part complete, and the focus now switches to ensuring all improvements are rationalised in the SCAR-CGA. This presentation will share some of the particularly interesting (and particularly odd) issues encountered along the way. \N\N\N\N\N\N11:50\N\N\NTracing manaaki: Relational cartographies in colonial space\NRebecca Kiddle (Spatial Justice Aotearoa), James Berghan, Amiria Kiddle, and Ben Siesicki\N\NView abstract\NUrban space in Aotearoa has been produced through colonial logic, technologies of measurement, division, and erasure. Yet these spatial formations have never fully extinguished the relational orders they sought to displace. Manaaki understood here not as sentiment but as an active, binding force of reciprocal relation and obligation, has continued to organise Māori spatial practice, knowledge, and belonging across disrupted landscapes and cities.\NThis paper takes mapping as both method and metaphor. It argues that attending to manaaki as a spatial logic, rather than a cultural value adjacent to spatial thinking, fundamentally reorients what mapping can do and whose geographies it can render legible. Where colonial cartography fixes, abstracts, and severs, an manaaki-centred approach traces movement, continuity, and the relational threads that connect people to each other and to whenua across time.\NDrawing on kaupapa Māori methodology and spatial justice scholarship, the paper makes two related arguments. First, that mātauranga Māori offers substantive, not merely additive, frameworks for spatial analysis and practice. Second, that aroha constitutes a form of spatial knowledge, shaping how places are understood, sustained, and imagined into the future.\NThe paper concludes by asking what it might mean to design, plan, and research in ways that are accountable to manaaki, and what kinds of spatial futures such accountability might open.\N\N\N\N\N X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:10:50 | The first map of the city of Wellington?: Heaphy's plan of BritanniaRobin Skinner (Victoria University of Wellington) View abstractThe "Plan of the City of Britannia in Lambton Harbour, Port Nicholson, New Zealand" by nineteen-year-old Charles Heaphy held at Te Papa Tongarewa is often described as "the earliest known map of Wellington". This paper attempts to place the plan in the context of the activities of the New Zealand Company in the early 1840s. It is argued that, while this is the oldest surviving plan, it is in fact the second plan. It was produced as an archival copy. Further information was added over time, with some significant annotations being discernible. These amendments enable an extended reading of events, offering insight into the workings of the settlement, and the exchanges with the company officials in London, in the colony's first months. Finally, the paper speculates on the how the plan survived, while the original plan and surveyors' initial terrain records have been lost. |
11:10 | The sea, or not the sea, that is the question: Mapping the Coastal Marine AreaKarl Majorhazi (Te Tari Whakatau) View abstractGenerations of spatial professionals have relied on the 1:50,000 scale coastline to delineate the boundary between land and sea. Modern applications and technology demand more accurate, higher resolution coastlines. One example of this is the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Act 2011 which uses the Coastal Marine Area (CMA) as the legally defined boundary for recognising applications for Customary Marine Title and Protected Customary Rights. The CMA is defined by the line of Mean High-Water Springs (MHWS), the 12 nautical mile limit of the territorial sea, and an agreed CMA boundary at rivers. Te Tari Whakatau have integrated LINZ's new LIDAR-derived Pilot MHWS dataset and local government's river boundaries to create a pilot version of the entire Coastal Marine Area. This presentation will explain how each of these elements are used, the decisions made, and the dataset's limitations. |
11:30 | The review of New Zealand's Antarctic place namesChristopher Stephens (Toitū Te Whenua Land Information NZ) View abstractNew Zealand has maintained a continuous presence in Antarctica since the 1950s. In anticipation of new place naming by the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1956-58), in 1956 the New Zealand Geographic Board received authority to consider and approve Antarctic place names. With the establishment of Scott Base in 1957, government led, university based, and other NZ expeditions set out to investigate, survey, geologise, map, and inevitably, give new names, across the Ross Sea region. Internationally, New Zealand and equivalent naming authorities from other nations operating in Antarctica are encouraged to submit their names to the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research’s (SCAR’s) Composite Gazetteer of Antarctica (https://placenames.aq/). This database, mooted in 1992 and first published in 1998, continues to provide valuable spatial information for those working in Antarctica. It also provides international visibility of all named places, in part to discourage countries from approving new names for already named features. In practice, Antarctic place naming information has carried a legacy of imprecision. For example, Antarctic place names were typically recorded to the nearest arc minute of accuracy - positions could be up to a kilometre from the physical feature (depending on the latitude), if they were even accurate in the first place. Likewise, issues of typos, transpositions, misinterpretation and cartographic errors, have made Antarctic place naming information sometimes ambiguous, occasionally fraught. Since 2017, the Board has worked to review all Antarctic Place Names, first confirming the original naming and intent through published texts and its archives, then making improvements using the latest geospatial data products. The review as of 2026 is for the most part complete, and the focus now switches to ensuring all improvements are rationalised in the SCAR-CGA. This presentation will share some of the particularly interesting (and particularly odd) issues encountered along the way. |
11:50 | Tracing manaaki: Relational cartographies in colonial spaceRebecca Kiddle (Spatial Justice Aotearoa), James Berghan, Amiria Kiddle, and Ben Siesicki View abstractUrban space in Aotearoa has been produced through colonial logic, technologies of measurement, division, and erasure. Yet these spatial formations have never fully extinguished the relational orders they sought to displace. Manaaki understood here not as sentiment but as an active, binding force of reciprocal relation and obligation, has continued to organise Māori spatial practice, knowledge, and belonging across disrupted landscapes and cities. This paper takes mapping as both method and metaphor. It argues that attending to manaaki as a spatial logic, rather than a cultural value adjacent to spatial thinking, fundamentally reorients what mapping can do and whose geographies it can render legible. Where colonial cartography fixes, abstracts, and severs, an manaaki-centred approach traces movement, continuity, and the relational threads that connect people to each other and to whenua across time. Drawing on kaupapa Māori methodology and spatial justice scholarship, the paper makes two related arguments. First, that mātauranga Māori offers substantive, not merely additive, frameworks for spatial analysis and practice. Second, that aroha constitutes a form of spatial knowledge, shaping how places are understood, sustained, and imagined into the future. The paper concludes by asking what it might mean to design, plan, and research in ways that are accountable to manaaki, and what kinds of spatial futures such accountability might open. |
10:50 | Describing maps in a library context: Map cataloguing for non-cataloguersAndrew Robinson (National Library of NZ) View abstractMaps want to be found, but how do you find the one you’re looking for? The National Library of New Zealand has large and diverse collections of maps, mostly of New Zealand, the Pacific and Antarctica, including both published and unpublished, print and increasing numbers in digital formats. To make them all findable and accessible they are described succinctly in the library’s catalogues. The data elements that make up the description convey various aspects of a map such as place, subject and contributors. National Library uses international standards to describe maps and other cartographic resources and those standards facilitate data sharing with other institutions that collect maps. In times of increasing automation more time is spent by cataloguers on the elements that require more human input, such as bringing like things together and differentiating those that are different. Not all maps with the title Wellington are the same! |
11:10 | Mapping natural hazards for public understanding: Lessons from the Natural Hazards PortalChris McDowall (Natural Hazards Commission) View abstractNatural hazard maps carry unusual responsibility. They can genuinely help people understand the places where they live, work and visit, but they can also be misread as predictions, property assessments, or definitive statements about future damage. This talk discusses design lessons from the Natural Hazards Portal, a public-facing platform developed by the Natural Hazards Commission Toka Tū Ake to make natural hazard maps and claims information easier to find, understand and use. The Portal brings together information about natural hazards in Aotearoa New Zealand and presents it for a broad public audience. Its users include homeowners, renters, prospective buyers, journalists, planners, community groups, researchers, insurers, real estate professionals and local government staff. These audiences bring different levels of technical knowledge, different needs, and different expectations of what a map can tell them. This creates a central cartographic challenge: how can complex natural hazard datasets be made accessible, without making them seem more precise and certain than they are? This challenge is compounded by the fact that public audiences are often time poor, encountering hazard information on mobile devices in distracting, everyday settings such as open homes, work commutes, or as part of a quick conversations about an unfamiliar address. The redevelopment of the Portal has focused on improving usability, readability, mobile access and plain-language interpretation. It includes a refreshed public interface, clearer navigation, improved property and place-based pathways, and new content to help people understand what hazard information does and does not show. In the Bay of Plenty pilot area, the Portal is also introducing multi-hazard mapping that allows users to explore several types of hazard information in one public-facing map environment. This creates opportunities for better access to information, but also raises important design questions about visual hierarchy, layer selection, legend language, scale, uncertainty and user interpretation. Findings from this work informed a number of design decisions, including simpler page structures, a more deliberate layering of information, and clearer framing of what the maps do and do not show. Further usability and accessibility testing during build, particularly focused on mapping elements, alongside subject matter expert review by natural hazard scientists and regional council practitioners, supported iterative refinement before public release. A key lesson from the Portal is that the map cannot be separated from the words around it. In technical GIS environments, legends and metadata often assume a specialist user. In a public service context, the legend, heading, explanatory text, caveats and interaction design all become part of the cartography. A phrase such as “areas potentially affected” may be more appropriate than language that implies certainty. A layer description may need to explain whether the information represents a modelled scenario, an observed event, a susceptibility classification, or another form of evidence. These choices are not cosmetic. They shape what people think the map means. The Portal’s design work has therefore treated plain language as a cartographic tool. Hazard layer descriptions need to be short enough to work in an interface, but clear enough to reduce misinterpretation. They need to avoid unnecessary jargon while preserving the limits of the underlying data. This is particularly important for multi-hazard mapping, where different datasets may have different methods, scales, update cycles and meanings. Placing them in a single interface can create a false sense of equivalence unless the design makes those differences visible. Another lesson is that caveats should not be treated as legal footnotes. For public hazard maps, caveats are part of the user experience. Information about scale, limitations, appropriate use and data provenance needs to appear close to the point of interpretation, not buried in supporting material. This is especially important when maps are viewed on mobile devices, where screen space is limited and users may move quickly between map, address search, legend and explanatory content. A good public hazard map must help people pause at the right moments and understand what questions the map can and cannot answer. The Portal also demonstrates that cartographic design is shaped by governance and public trust. Natural hazard information can affect how people feel about their home, community or future choices. Publishing this information requires careful coordination with data providers, scientists, communications specialists, legal advisers, customer-facing teams and local government partners. Decisions about what to show, how to describe it, and when to release it are therefore not only technical decisions. They are public service decisions about clarity, usefulness, fairness and risk. This presentation will share practical lessons from the Portal’s redevelopment, with a focus on the design of public-facing hazard maps for non-specialist audiences. It will discuss how the project has approached plain-language legends, multi-hazard map design, mobile usability, data provenance, caveats, and the balance between accessibility and appropriate caution. It will also reflect on the broader role of cartography in helping people make sense of uncertain environmental information. In times of need, maps are often expected to provide answers. Public natural hazard maps must do something more careful: they must support understanding without pretending to remove uncertainty. The Natural Hazards Portal offers a case study in designing maps that are useful, cautious and accessible. Its central lesson is that responsible hazard cartography is not only about what data is displayed. It is about how the map helps people interpret that data, ask better questions, and understand the limits of what any map can say. |
11:30 | Cultural mapping of Lake Waikare, an enduring tūpunaOliver E. McLeod (Waikato Regional Council), Glen Tupuhi, and Joe (Jumbo) Montgomery View abstractWaikare is a large freshwater lake in the lower Waikato and part of the wider floodplain of the Waikato River. While the name Waikare is often translated as ‘passionate water’, the deeper meaning of kare is a special loved person, reflecting the view of mana whenua that the lake is a tūpuna. For over five centuries, iwi and hapū of the Tainui waka lived with, harvested from, and cultivated the lake and its seasonal floodplain. Waikare is also unusual in that it contains hot springs that bubble up along a fault. The lake was the dramatic backdrop to the Waikato Land Wars (1863–65), including the Rangiriri siege, after which vast tracts of land were confiscated and tribal knowledge decimated. The raupatu marked a fundamental shift in land and water management, beginning with farm-scale wetland drainage and progressing into the engineered flood control of Lake Waikare and the adjacent Whangamarino Wetland from the mid‑20th century. Farm intensification and the loss of natural hydrological connections to the Waikato River have since resulted in Waikare becoming one of the most polluted lakes in Aotearoa, with persistent algal blooms, invasive fish, and a collapse of its aquatic plant life. The lake’s condition is now the subject of intense political attention at both regional and national levels, reflecting the confluence of historical injustice, cultural significance, and environmental degradation that shapes its management today. The lakebed is held under the title of King Tāwhiao, the first Māori King, following its return under the Waikato‑Tainui Raupatu Claims (Waikato River) Settlement Act 2010. Matahuru and Waikare marae stand at each end of the lake. This paper presents a cultural map of Waikare developed to document remaining knowledge of the lake’s cultural landscape. The map records wāhi tapu around the lake margins (pā, māra kai, battle sites, urupā, and travel routes), reinstates traditional place names, and reconstructs the former extent of forest cover, wetlands, and floodplain prior to major hydrological modification and clearance. The primary knowledge source was wānanga with kaumātua of Ngāti Hine, who shared kōrero tuku iho. These were complemented by historical survey maps from the immediate post‑raupatu period, including an 1865 survey map, and flood imagery from the last major unrestricted flood in the 1950s, used to estimate seasonal floodplain channels that shaped everyday life. Place names were generally recognised where there was agreement among at least three knowledge holders, although some additional names known by only one kaumātua were also retained. This project uses cartography to support cultural restoration. A medium once used by colonial surveyors is here used instead to reinstate original place names and cultural landscapes. The map provides insight into past environments and uses of the lake that are difficult or impossible to recover through other forms of environmental study, and these insights may help guide future restoration of the lake. It also serves as a stable, long-term repository of mātauranga during a period of transition in the lake’s management, when cultural, social, environmental, and economic priorities are in flux. The map serves as both a cultural record and a living resource for future generations, supporting remembrance, education, and engagement with the wāhi tapu, histories, and mana whakahaere of Waikare. Map outputs include a physical printed map and a digital GIS database held by Waikato Regional Council. The kōrero associated with place names is held by Ngāti Hine hapū. |
11:50 | Understanding the significance of skill expectations and spatial thinking in GIS educationBasma Abdul Muhsin (Victoria University of Wellington), Mairéad de Róiste, and Kathryn Sutherland View abstractSpatial thinking is fundamental in Geographical Information Science (GIScience), and it supports advanced problem-solving and higher-order cognition. Despite this, spatial thinking is neither explicitly identified in academic literature as a required skill for geospatial professionals, nor are industry skill needs examined through a spatial-thinking lens. Spatial thinking is also rarely explicitly taught in GIScience tertiary education programs. The geospatial industry reports strong demand for higher-order cognitive skills and problem-solving skills. Although some literature indicates that industry experts believe tertiary educators lack an understanding of the skills required to prepare GIS graduates for the workforce. The existing GIS literature identifies skills that are important for the GIS industry. To date, there is no focus on geospatial skill expectations in relation to the routine use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the workplace. AI in the workplace is changing skill expectations in some industries, and this shift has not been examined in the GIS industry. This talk will explore the findings from an extensive review of the literature on skill expectations. I will highlight the differences in the ways skill expectations are communicated within education-sector and GIS industry documents, and I will present a list of skills I have identified from the literature that are expected of GIS graduates. |
Over the past fifteen years, GIS has become an important tool for Ngāti Hinewaka and Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa in documenting, understanding and protecting cultural landscapes across southern Wairarapa. What began as a project to replace archaeological “dots” with polygons has grown into a wider mapping journey connecting pā, papakāinga, urupā, tauranga waka, traditional fisheries, wāhi tapu, historical records, oral histories and mātauranga Māori.
This presentation reflects on how Indigenous GIS can improve protection not only by more accurately showing the geographical extent of sites, but also by avoiding the risks created when sensitive places such as burials, kōiwi or taonga discoveries are identified by a single exact point. By mapping wider cultural landscapes, polygons can provide councils, planners, landowners and the farming community with practical certainty while respecting the need to protect the most sensitive knowledge.
The presentation explores how this mapping has supported Treaty settlement negotiations, heritage protection, Marine and Coastal Area recognition, and the identification of sites and areas of significance to Māori in the Wairarapa Combined District Plan. It considers mapping not simply as a technical exercise, but as a form of kaitiakitanga: a way of reconnecting people, place, history and decision-making while protecting knowledge that should not be unnecessarily exposed.
Understanding Geospatial Skill Expectations (workshop)Basma Abdul Muhsin (Victoria University of Wellington) Skill expectations in the geospatial industry are explored to some extent in the academic literature. However, understanding how these expectations relate to Artificial Intelligence (AI) is limited. This workshop will explore your perceptions of skill expectations in the geospatial industry and the impact of AI on those expectations. You will be placed in groups based on your use of AI in the workplace. You will take part in guided discussions to talk about the key skills needed in the geospatial field, whether skills required in the geospatial industry have changed with the rise of AI, and how this impacts you. The results of this workshop will contribute to the researcher’s doctoral thesis on understanding the significance of skill expectations and spatial thinking in GIS education. |
14:20 | Lessons learned making bad map projectionsDavid O'Sullivan (Geospatial Stuff / University of Auckland) View abstractThe XKCD comic's series of 'bad map projections' are often (yes) bad, but also often thought-provoking. While many seem likely to have been generated by manipulation of map data in a drawing package others seem likely to have been generated by manipulation of projection software. In this paper I will light-heartedly present findings from my experiences attempting to recreate XKCD map projections. A somewhat serious underlying message is that it would be great to have more options available for the generation and exchange of arbitrary map projections, which are a potent tool of creative cartography. |
14:40 | Reconsidering the neighbourhoodDaniel Exeter (University of Auckland) View abstractThe public have a reasonably good understanding of what a neighbourhood is, and most would be able to define the spatial extent of their neighbourhood. However, from a geospatial context, the neighbourhood is a phenomenon that can have different configurations. Indeed, depending on the setting, scale, data coverage or availability, and even a map’s purpose, the neighbourhood can present itself in many guises. For example, the Figure shows the potential defintions of Royal Oak ranging from relatively small Statistical Area (SA) 1 boundaries through to SA3, which are not consistent with the LINZ definition of the suburb/neighbourhood. When analysing data for a single time point, the geospatial definition of a neighbourhood is complex, but is significantly more challenging when data from two or more time points are considered. In this presentation, we explore the conventional definitions of neighbourhoods for New Zealand, before presenting alternative methods and exploring approaches to define neighbourhoods to investigate spatio-temporal changes. |
15:00 | Storytime (and space): Morphing XYT to match linear comic stripsAntoni B Moore (University of Otago) and David O'Sullivan View abstractWe are finding an increasing number of ways to explicitly integrate maps with narratives or stories (Roth, 2021). Inspirations for this centre around cinema and fine art, though through Esri’s StoryMap, the practice has become somewhat mainstream in GIScience. One promising art form for this hybrid narrative map is the comic strip (sequential art). As the name suggests, it is linear and carries the means to embed a story in the map. Building on an implementation of Time Geography or a space-time cube (a 3D ‘space’ with XYT axes) (Hägerstrand, 1970; Kraak, 2003) containing comic strip lifelines (Moore et al, 2018), this presentation introduces a potential solution to displaying stories that may occur over many scales in space and time. To illustrate, a long uneventful road trip would have less ‘story’ in a spatiotemporal sense over a large expanse in all three dimensions, while a short but important conversation in a room will occupy a relatively small amount of space-time ‘volume’. Maintaining a mono (linear)-scale space-time cube for comic strip narratives will therefore not adequately represent most stories. We present what is in essence a 3D cartogram solution, using diffusion processes to transfer space-time volume from where it is not needed (situations like the road trip) to where it can be used to give room to fine spatiotemporal scale phenomena (the single room conversation). This technique is similar to the 2D Gastner-Newman algorithm (Gastner and Newman, 2004). Figure 1 shows an implementation in NetLogo 3D depicting a simple work day for one person (their comic lifeline describes a sleep - breakfast - commute - work - lunch - work - commute - dinner - sleep scenario from midnight to midnight) where their space-time coordinates are allocated volume from where they are non-present. There are many parameters and possibilities to work through from this starting point. Given that the space-time cube is given over to a narrative, it might make more sense for time to increase down the ‘page’, like a comic book or graphic novel, instead of up, as is the time axis convention. Other aspects to tackle include the vagueness that narrative often has, and more complex situations than the one exemplified here. Time geography could help, as it already has bundles to handle many protagonists and other visual structures (stations, domains), that could lend clarity to a complex situation. The user interface affords standard zoom, pan and rotate functionality, but could be built upon to enable provision of extra story detail with zooming, or slicing through the 3D space to generate simpler 2D views. This all points to a need for a thorough usability testing, to gauge the true value of the approach. |
15:40 | Algorithmic cross-blended hypsometric tinting at 8-meter resolution for ecologically complex terrain: A land-cover-driven pipeline for New ZealandSongyuan Wang (University of Canterbury) and Hejia Zhang View abstractOn New Zealand's West Coast, the transition from coastal rainforest to exposed alpine terrain is exceptionally abrupt, with dense forest giving way to alpine rock and permanent ice over short distances. Natural Earth’s cross-blended hypsometric tints provide an elegant solution for global consistency, but global consistency and local fidelity are fundamentally different objectives. This paper therefore presents an algorithmic, land-cover-driven pipeline designed for ecological responsiveness to local data at 8 m resolution. Visual decisions are controlled through explicit, adjustable parameters, producing a replicable framework that could potentially be transferred to other regions by substituting comparable land-cover inputs. |
16:00 | Flood Extent Mapping: Photo to Flood ExtentAndrew Steffert (Horizons Regional Council) Abstract coming soonExisting aerial ortho photography and elevation models provide great base layers for compiling and mapping flood extents. Existing imagery and DEMs allow small gaps to be interpolated and filled while levels are checked to ensure downstream consistency. Flood modelling utilises these inundation extents, river gauge data and other observations to calibrate flood models. The flood modelling outputs are then used in mapping products and spatial plan documents. Mapping successive flood events shows trends, changes and differences in the channels and tributaries. We have utilised a new service from a local provider to capture and deliver storm event imagery on the same day. The podded camera system attaches to a light aircraft and can operate below cloud in low light conditions poorly suited for conventional aerial photo survey. While the imagery is captured in sub-optimal conditions, it satisfies the need for timely information delivery to assess initial damage from the event. Additional post event imagery may be captured when the weather improves. In the near future, we are exploring provision of a live video feed from the aircraft to the Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) with communications to the operator in the aircraft to direct the camera to areas of interest. The video records as full motion video for rapid event and post event analysis. |
16:20 | Harnessing the power of deep learning and earth observation for flood extent forecasting in Aotearoa New ZealandMeeth Nimasha Lande Bandara Herath (Victoria University of Wellington), Andrew Lensen, Anya Leenman, Mairéad de Róiste, and Emily O'Riordan View abstractAccurate flood inundation mapping remains a critical gap in geospatial datasets globally, limiting both disaster response and the training of spatially aware predictive models. Floods are among the most widespread and devastating natural hazards, affecting communities worldwide. This impact highlights the need for accurate and timely flood mapping and forecasting. Flood forecasting methods, including rainfall-runoff, hydrologic, hydraulic, hydrodynamic modelling, and AI, are employed to mitigate these impacts. Despite methodological advancements, challenges persist, e.g., lengthy processing times, an inability to capture intricate details and interactions among processes contributing to flooding, performance constraints, and generalisation difficulties. Machine Learning (ML) and Deep Learning (DL) models could be used to forecast floods efficiently, but they require sufficient training data for accurate results, which is limited in New Zealand and many other world regions due to the lack of historical flood extent maps. To address this gap, we present an automated, reproducible geospatial workflow combining Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) change detection and optical water classification to generate nationally consistent past flood extent maps, a cartographic product that did not previously exist for New Zealand. |
16:40 | Mapping the potential of urban agriculture for post-disaster food resilience: A GIS-based assessment in Wellington, New ZealandYanxin Liu (Victoria University of Wellington), Victoria Chanse, and Fabricio Chicca View abstractWellington, New Zealand, faces significant seismic risks and a food system that relies |
15:40 | Graphic Artist vs Cartographer vs MachineWilliam Cartwright (C|G|C / RMIT University) and Emily Meriam View abstractOnce a design brief has been developed and the attributes of a graphic product specified, graphic artists generally have freedom to produce artefacts however they see fit. For Cartographers, their design, map specification and final production is dictated by specifications related to the delivery mechanism used (printed map on paper, digital image, mobile device image, etc.), selection of an appropriate map projection and selection of appropriate databases. In most cases the freedom to ‘do whatever you want’ does not exist for Cartographers. And, more recently, that use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) - facilitated applications can remove altogether both the Graphic Artist and the Cartographer altogether. This paper provides information about an on-going project that uses contemporary geospatial data and mapping packages and AI graphics generation applications to produce a ‘tribute map’, which can be compared to a map produced by a Graphic Artist in the mid-1930s. A design brief was developed for the Tribute Map so that it could be produced by a Cartographer, the co-author of this paper, and AI image-generation software. The subsequent maps produced, by commercial cartographic software (ArcGIS Pro ) and AI applicationswere compared to the Graphic Artist – produced artefact. |
16:00 | Causal GeoAgents for explainable movement intelligenceSaeed Rahimi (Imaginative AI), Antoni B. Moore and Peter A. Whigham View abstractGIScience and its applications are vast, spanning phenomena from the movement behaviours of fish in a tank to climate systems at global scale. Selecting a contained geospatial phenomenon as a test case is therefore a sensible starting point for developing a Causal GeoAgent. Movement data are exceptionally well suited to causal questions: they often record decisions, interactions, and reactions over fine temporal scales. The case for extending movement analysis explicitly into causal territory has been made (Rahimi et al., 2021), but the methodological apparatus to do so has not been available until recently. This work proposes an agent that analyses movement observations and infers the causal mechanisms underlying movement decisions. |
16:20 | A GIS-to-AI framework for automated property assessmentKambiz Borna (MIT / Unitec) View abstractProperty decision-making requires synthesising flood hazards, infrastructure networks, zoning regulations, transport services, and education facilities. This information is distributed across platforms managed by local councils, LINZ, Watercare, and Landcare Research. Accessing and integrating these datasets requires GIS expertise and significant manual effort for both GIS professionals and general users. This paper presents a web-based GIS tool that automates data collection from multiple sources and formats outputs for AI-assisted report generation. The tool demonstrates a practical framework for democratising geospatial intelligence for users, such as real estate agents, developers, homeowners, and planners. |
Maps are powerful tools for understanding and communicating stories of place. Maps help shape how people perceive and act within places. Yet, every map is also a choice: a summary rather than a totality, a representation shaped by data, scale, purpose, and perspective. What is included, simplified, emphasised, or left out changes not only what a map shows, but also what kinds of stories it makes possible.
This presentation explores maps through the lens of need for both the map readers and map makers. The needs of map readers who require clarity, context, and visual structure to make sense of spatial information. But our understanding of how people use maps for spatial sensemaking is still limited, particularly when decisions are made collectively in meetings, planning processes, community conversations, and classrooms.
Map makers themselves are an active but often hidden part of the map-making process. They bring varying skills, emotions, responsibilities, histories, and perspectives, while also working within organisational, practical, political, and institutional constraints. Their needs shape our maps in ways that are frequently unacknowledged.
By considering the layered relationships between place, people, and purpose, this presentation reflects on both the possibilities and constraints of mapping and how we understand the world. It invites us to consider again what maps are for, whose needs maps serve, and what role we play in telling richer and more responsible stories of place.
10:50 | Designing a topographic experience for Apple MapsDamien Saunder (Apple) View abstractApple Maps recently introduced thousands of hikes in U.S. national parks — from Acadia National Park in Maine, to Yosemite National Park in California — on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch. Concurrently, Apple Maps debuted topographic maps in the U.S. and Japan, presenting stunning details such as contour lines and comprehensive trail information. To support Apple's new Hiking experience, the Cartography team extensively researched and compiled the most significant physical landforms in each park, encompassing mountains, plateaus, plains, basins, and coastal features. This presentation will delve into the cartographic curation of these features and address the novel challenges encountered by the team in effectively displaying them across iPhone and Apple Watch— from scale-dependent label density, to searching for nearby physical landforms and trailheads right from the watch face. |
11:10 | A tour of New Zealand's Future Topographic Mapping projectKarl Baker (Toitū Te Whenua Land Information NZ) and Jonathan Ball View abstractToitū Te Whenua Land Information New Zealand is rebuilding NZ's entire topographic production pipeline from the ground up: national-scale feature editing, data validation, cartographic production, and open data publication, all on open-source tools. This talk dives into the architecture, the wins, the hard lessons, and what it really takes to run a whole country's topographic mapping on FOSS4G. |
11:30 | Contours to clouds: Topographic mapping of the Southern Alps / Kā Tiritiri o te MoanaAubrey Miller (University of Otago) and Pascal Sirguey View abstractThe high alpine regions of New Zealand’s Southern Alps / Kā Tiritiri o te Moana have long been a focus for cartographers and surveyors. Since the last nationwide mapping campaign in the 1980s, which underpinned the 20 m contour and NZTopo 1:50,000 map series, these landscapes have changed considerably through glacier downwasting and retreat, landsliding, erosion and other geomorphic processes. As a result, many digital representations of alpine topography no longer reflect the present-day terrain. |
11:50 | Terrain-based probability for aiding probability of success in locating lost and missing subjectsEd Cook (Land Search and Rescue NZ) and Aly Curd View abstractIn Aotearoa New Zealand, time‑critical Search and Rescue (SAR), decisions about where to search must be made rapidly, transparently, and under uncertainty. Terrain and land cover shape human movement (where people can and choose to go), containment (where travel becomes constrained), and detectability (how likely searchers are to see or reach a subject). Despite this, many operational plans rely on coarse heuristics or imported lost‑person behaviour assumptions that may not generalise to Aotearoa New Zealand’s distinctive environments (dense indigenous forests, alpine terrain, braided rivers, steep hill country, coastal cliffs, and complex peri‑urban edges). This presentation presents a terrain‑derived probability approach grounded in local find‑location evidence, designed for geographers/cartographers/geospatial scientists and explicitly aimed at operational adoption. Our research aims to quantify relationships between find locations and key terrain/landscape characteristics in Aotearoa New Zealand, disaggregated by subject category and compared across North vs South Island contexts. We aim to translate statistical significant terrain associations into probability products relevant to SAR planning including Probability of Area (POA), probability density surfaces, and implications for Probability of Detection (POD) and Probability of Success (POS = POA × POD). This includes practical considerations for usability, i.e., how effectively SAR search managers interpret and apply these terrain‑derived statistics and maps under time pressure, and identify design requirements for operational use. |
10:50 | The application of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and mapping to help understand prison violenceLars Brabyn (University of Waikato) and Armon Tamatea View abstractThis research explores how Geographical Information Systems (GIS) can be used to help understand and reduce prison violence. Prison violence is a serious and complex “ecological” problem involving many dimensions, including the characteristics of the prisoner population, the experience of staff and the prison management techniques being used, as well as the physical layout of the prison (Wortley, 2002; Moran et al. 2012; Steiner and Wooldredge, 2020). GIS, as a geospatial data-visualisation technique, provides a perspective on the distribution of violence that is not appreciable via probabilistic analyses. This work was conducted as part of a multi-perspectival research programme that aims to understand and prevent violence in New Zealand prisons (Brabyn, 2023: Brabyn et al. 2023). The novel use of GIS was used for exploring the physical layout of prison units in relation to prison violence, including the proportion of indoor and outdoor space, as well as heat maps showing the exact locations of violence within the prison units. |
11:10 | Understanding general practice utilisation patterns through comparison of theoretical catchment allocation and observed utilisationRu Yuan (University of Otago), Katarzyna Sila-Nowicka, and Daniel Exeter View abstractProximity assumptions that people attend either their nearest or a nearby general practice underpin |
11:30 | Banking stability implications of future coastal flooding scenarios on mapped house prices in Aotearoa New ZealandAntoni B Moore (University of Otago), Quyen Nguyen, Ivan Diaz-Rainey, Owyn Aitken, Gregory E. Bodeker, Simon C. Cox, Ryan Paulik, and Rebecca Welsh View abstractAotearoa New Zealand is characterized by a highly bank-based financial system (85% of household wealth and 60% of bank assets are concentrated in coastal real estate) and is also tectonically active, leading to variable vertical land motions, which in turn may lead to variable effective rate of sea-level rise (SLR). As part of the STRAND project, we took this unique and valuable case study, and implemented a unified GIS-based climate stress test. This quantified the impact of coastal flooding at a national scale, due to extreme seas and sea-level rise, on residential property values and banking stability. We estimated overvaluations for each coastal home across multiple flood return periods and SLR increments. We found that the NZ domestic real estate market has underpriced present-day coastal flood risk. The evidence in the outputs of the stress test include variation of pricing within a single coastal unit (mixed price signals), potential incremental mortgage losses, and uneven impact across banks (the smaller banks being most susceptible). The results underline the importance of integrating spatially and temporally explicit climate hazards, and a bottom-up process, into the emerging asset-level climate stress testing frameworks conducted by banks and insurers (Battiston et al., 2017; Bressan et al., 2024). |
11:50 | Voluntary location-based content in visual analytics-based decision-making supportLong Chen (Massey University) View abstractThe release of the iPhone 4 in 2010 accelerated public access to geotagged photography and contributed to the rapid growth of user-generated spatio-temporal data. Kisilevich et al. (2010) noticed the technological surge and the limitations of the previous explorations in visualising or analysing the information gathered using the technology and proposed a framework to analyse places and events using geo-tagged photos collected using a more analytical approach. Kisilevich et al. (2010) realised that the spatio-temporal data contributed by the public have enabled the scientific understanding of people’s daily travel behaviour and that GPS-based event/place detection presented limitations in capturing smaller events, relying heavily on semantic tags, and struggling with overlapping or multilingual contexts (Andrienko et al., 2007; Spaccapietra et al., 2008; Jaffe et al., 2006). Rather than offering exploratory solutions, Kisilevich et al. (2010) emphasised the analytical value of places and events through geospatial visual analytics, geo-computation, and spatio-temporal data mining, and developed a framework to analyse such travel behaviour through the collection of geotagged photos. Chen et al (2021) and their later study performed exploratory and explanatory spatial analysis on adolescents’ active transport to school (ATS) behaviour and its related factors, and created a dashboard-based decision-making support (DMS) tool to visualise the findings of the spatial approaches, as well as provided further potential for visual analytics. The original DMS tool study suggested multiple potential improvements to enhance the visual analytical and geovisualisation approaches, while Kisilevich et al (2010) suggested a potential to improve the original DMS tool to allow more efficient and near-real-time data collection and visualisation. This abstract proposes a DMS tool 2.0 incorporated with AI-powered semantic extraction from geotagged photos and multivariate thematic mapping. |
A map. Four minutes. Go!
Quickfire Cartography is a rapid-fire session where mapmakers reveal the stories behind their maps in under four minutes. Discover the inspiration, design choices, data sources, and software that shaped each map, and leave with fresh ideas, new techniques, and plenty of cartographic inspiration.
LAST-MODIFIED:20260722T223315Z SEQUENCE:1287066 LOCATION:Vivian Street 139\, 6040 Wellington\, Wellington\, New Zealand GEO:-41.29560640;174.77557020 X-ROOMS:Lecture Theatre 1 X-LOCATION-DISPLAYNAME:VUW Te Aro [Lecture Theatre 1] X-ACCESS:1 X-HITS:51 X-COLOR:966315 X-SHOW-END-TIME:1 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Pacific/Auckland:20260827T142000 DTEND;TZID=Pacific/Auckland:20260827T145000 UID:7C8F7E37-7209-4904-A0A1-BCC708A4F68B SUMMARY:Poster Session CREATED:20260708T010209Z DTSTAMP:20260708T010209Z URL:https://cartography.org.nz/geocart2026/schedule/poster DESCRIPTION:\N\N\N\N \N\N\NMountain cartography\NGeoff D Aitken (New Topo)\N\NView abstract\NThe International Cartographic Association’s Commission on Mountain Cartography holds Workshops every alternate year. The workshops are technical, sharing, friendly, and held in mountain environments. The NZCS hosted such a workshop at Taurewa, Tongariro National Park, in 2012. This time I was the only kiwi cartographer attending.\NThe most recent workshop (the 14th ) was held in the ski resort of Harrachov, Czechia 22-26 April 2026. https://mountaincartography.icaci.org/activities/workshops/harrachov_czech/website/ \NThe objective of the poster is to raise awareness of ICA’s specialist working groups with particular emphasis on the Mountain Cartography group, using the Harrachov Workshop as an example.\N\N\N\N\N\N \N\N\NMapping Tūrangawaewae: Whānau memory, generational layers, and what conventional maps do not show\NBen Siesicki (Te Wānanga o Aotearea), Rebecca Kiddle, James Berghan, & Amiria Kiddle\N\NView abstract\NThis poster explores how whānau memory and lived experience can reveal spatial knowledge that is often absent from conventional maps. Developed from a Master of Architecture thesis focused on tūrangawaewae, the work compares two forms of mapping: a map of visible, named, and historically recorded features, and a whānau-annotated map containing memories, stories, relationships, and place-based associations.\NAs part of the thesis research, whānau participants were invited to mark significant places, memories, and associations onto a map of whenua connected to the researcher's family. When compared with a conventional base map, the annotated whānau map revealed a richer and more relational understanding of place. Rather than showing whenua as a neutral surface of roads, boundaries, rivers, buildings, and landmarks, the whānau map made visible a layered field of memory, whakapapa, movement, attachment, and everyday experience. \NThese layers were not always physically legible on the land, nor easily captured by standard cartographic conventions, but they remained central to how the place was known, valued, and understood.\NThe poster argues that this contrast offers a useful way to think about mapping in times of need. In contexts shaped by displacement, environmental change, urban development, land loss, and cultural disconnection, maps are often used to inform decisions about what matters, what is protected, and what futures are imagined. Yet if maps only record what can be surveyed, named, measured, or externally verified, they may miss the intangible relationships that make places meaningful to communities and whānau.\NThe poster brings the original thesis mapping exercise into dialogue with a supplementary collaborative mapping exercise undertaken with members of Spatial Justice Aotearoa. In this exercise, each participant begins with a conventional map extract of a place of personal or collective significance then annotates memories, associations, histories, movements, relationships, and absences that are not immediately visible through the base map alone. Together, these maps create a small comparative set of relational place-based mappings, allowing the poster to reflect on how personal, collective, and intergenerational knowledge can sit alongside more conventional cartographic representations.\NRather than proposing a fixed method, the poster positions whānau memory mapping as a design-led and kaupapa Māori-informed mode of inquiry. It asks how cartography might better hold relational, intergenerational, and embodied forms of spatial knowledge, and how maps might become tools not only for locating places, but for recognising the histories, memories, and responsibilities that live within them.\N\N\N\N\N X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:Mountain cartographyGeoff D Aitken (New Topo) View abstractThe International Cartographic Association’s Commission on Mountain Cartography holds Workshops every alternate year. The workshops are technical, sharing, friendly, and held in mountain environments. The NZCS hosted such a workshop at Taurewa, Tongariro National Park, in 2012. This time I was the only kiwi cartographer attending. The most recent workshop (the 14th ) was held in the ski resort of Harrachov, Czechia 22-26 April 2026. https://mountaincartography.icaci.org/activities/workshops/harrachov_czech/website/ The objective of the poster is to raise awareness of ICA’s specialist working groups with particular emphasis on the Mountain Cartography group, using the Harrachov Workshop as an example. | |
Mapping Tūrangawaewae: Whānau memory, generational layers, and what conventional maps do not showBen Siesicki (Te Wānanga o Aotearea), Rebecca Kiddle, James Berghan, & Amiria Kiddle View abstractThis poster explores how whānau memory and lived experience can reveal spatial knowledge that is often absent from conventional maps. Developed from a Master of Architecture thesis focused on tūrangawaewae, the work compares two forms of mapping: a map of visible, named, and historically recorded features, and a whānau-annotated map containing memories, stories, relationships, and place-based associations. As part of the thesis research, whānau participants were invited to mark significant places, memories, and associations onto a map of whenua connected to the researcher's family. When compared with a conventional base map, the annotated whānau map revealed a richer and more relational understanding of place. Rather than showing whenua as a neutral surface of roads, boundaries, rivers, buildings, and landmarks, the whānau map made visible a layered field of memory, whakapapa, movement, attachment, and everyday experience. These layers were not always physically legible on the land, nor easily captured by standard cartographic conventions, but they remained central to how the place was known, valued, and understood. The poster argues that this contrast offers a useful way to think about mapping in times of need. In contexts shaped by displacement, environmental change, urban development, land loss, and cultural disconnection, maps are often used to inform decisions about what matters, what is protected, and what futures are imagined. Yet if maps only record what can be surveyed, named, measured, or externally verified, they may miss the intangible relationships that make places meaningful to communities and whānau. The poster brings the original thesis mapping exercise into dialogue with a supplementary collaborative mapping exercise undertaken with members of Spatial Justice Aotearoa. In this exercise, each participant begins with a conventional map extract of a place of personal or collective significance then annotates memories, associations, histories, movements, relationships, and absences that are not immediately visible through the base map alone. Together, these maps create a small comparative set of relational place-based mappings, allowing the poster to reflect on how personal, collective, and intergenerational knowledge can sit alongside more conventional cartographic representations. Rather than proposing a fixed method, the poster positions whānau memory mapping as a design-led and kaupapa Māori-informed mode of inquiry. It asks how cartography might better hold relational, intergenerational, and embodied forms of spatial knowledge, and how maps might become tools not only for locating places, but for recognising the histories, memories, and responsibilities that live within them. |
15:10 | Surveying the colonial city: Re-reading survey plans for indigenous spatial justiceJames Berghan (Spatial Justice Aotearoa), Rebecca Kiddle, Amiria Kiddle, & Ben Siesicki View abstractSurvey plans are often treated as technical artefacts: precise, measured, administrative and largely neutral. However, in settler-colonial contexts, survey plans also helped produce new urban geographies. Through cadastral lines, bearings, parcels, road corridors, reserves, annotations and names, survey plans helped translate whenua into governable property and urban form. They went beyond simply recording the colonial city: they participated in making it. |
15:30 | CadastrAR: Collaborative mixed-reality for cadastral field decision supportFaisal Zaman (Toitū Te Whenua Land Information NZ), Mairéad de Róiste, and Nadia Pantidi View abstractCadastral data in New Zealand defines ownership, boundary positions, subdivision rights, and encumbrances across the country's land-information stack, maintained authoritatively through LINZ's Landonline system. Cadastral workflows rely heavily on interpreting boundaries through 2D plans and desktop-based GIS environments. Yet access to that data is not the same as usable knowledge in the field, where decision-critical information remains invisible to the practitioners who must act on it. The reliability of a recorded boundary position is embedded in dataset metadata with no spatial expression on the ground. Information about subsurface conditions, where it exists in accessible datasets, is similarly absent from the practitioner's view at the moment excavation or construction decisions must be made. Parcel boundaries cannot be confirmed as spatially consistent against the physical environment without manual interpretation of plans that may themselves carry unquantified positional uncertainty. The core limitation isn’t data availability or quality, but the absence of systems that make authoritative data visible, legible, and actionable at the moment of decision. CadastrAR addresses these problems as a working mixed-reality prototype by making decision-relevant cadastral information, including boundary geometry, positional reliability, parcel measurements, and constraint status, spatially present and interpretable at the site. It represents the cadastre as a topology-aware network, so that proposed edits propagate immediately and consistently across adjacent parcels, providing a coherent view of resulting changes. By anchoring collaboration between field operators and remote experts, instructors and trainees, and distributed co-reviewers to a shared spatial scene, it enables practitioners to evaluate boundary proposals and constraint conflicts collectively before they become formal commitments. This transforms cadastral records from abstract coordinates, metadata, and legal descriptions into spatially grounded information that can be directly read, interrogated, and acted upon in situ. |
15:50 | A missing link: Reconnecting whānau with whenua using historical survey mapsClaudia Ott (University of Otago), Veronica Liesaputra, Laurie Lloyd-Jones, Caitlin Owen, and Kelly Gragg View abstractThe land wars of the 19th century, resulting in massive land confiscations by the British crown, form a particularly dark chapter in the history of Aotearoa New Zealand. This has far reaching consequences for Māori people to the present day and decades to come. From a cultural perspective, reconnecting to the lost ancestral land is paramount to (1) grow and strengthen whānau (community) relationships, (2) tell the stories of the people long gone, and (3) to look into the past to navigate the future – all three defining elements of Māori culture. From an economical point of view the search for missing land owners is an ongoing challenge for Māori incorporations as dividends cannot be paid out and decision making is compromised. Historical survey maps are important artefacts to trace ownership succession, name changes and the whereabouts of wāhi tapu (culturally significant) sites. Although our collaborators and co-authors at Parininihi ki Waitotara (PKW), a Māori operated business, were gifted 686 digital images of high-resolution scans of over 300 historical survey maps, their usefulness was limited due to a lack of meaningful access. Together with PKW we developed a web interface to search and explore 80 georeferenced historical maps based on their location, contemporary land features such as roads and cultural sites, as well as map-specific metadata and annotations. To date, about 400 of those annotations have been created by PKW and members of the public to document name changes and link documents such as land titles and supporting images. In this presentation, we outline how we collaborated by using elements of co-design bridging the gap between users and developers and we present a fully-functional software prototype. Furthermore, we discuss development aspects, report the results of a user study and want to raise awareness for the need to decolonise historical GIS systems. |
16:10 | Mapping a city of stalled demolition: A plot-level spatial database of urban village redevelopment within Zhengzhou's Third Ring Road, 2005 to 2025Mengke Wang (Victoria University of Wellington) View abstractThe redevelopment of urban villages (chengzhongcun) has been one of the central spatial expressions of China's land-centred accumulation regime. Since the 1994 tax-sharing reform shifted expenditure responsibility downward while concentrating revenue upward, local governments have come to depend on land conveyance income, a dependence widely described as land finance (tudi caizheng). Within this regime, urban village redevelopment operated as an engine of value capture: collectively held village land was expropriated, converted to state-owned use, and recycled into the formal market across a substantial rent gap, with rising property values underwriting the cost of demolition and resettlement. This arrangement was financially coherent only while land values kept climbing. As the property market has slowed and fiscal constraints have tightened, the regime has begun to falter in a spatially specific and highly visible way, leaving a growing landscape of land that has been cleared of its original settlement but not yet rebuilt. This presentation argues that this condition of redevelopment arrested mid-cycle is fundamentally a cartographic problem, legible only when the transformation of the city is reconstructed plot by plot and year by year rather than inferred from aggregate land-conveyance or investment statistics. |
15:10 | A cartographic kaleidoscope of Auckland's city centreSam van der Weerden (Maynard) View abstractAuckland’s City Centre is a vibrant, busy, connected, multidisciplinary place. It accounts for significant proportions of regional and national GDP, large tourism spends, diverse employment opportunities, centres for arts and culture, and increasingly more people call it home. The reasons for travelling to, from, or within the City Centre are varied. The means of travel have been changing as well, with ongoing construction of a safe and joined-up cycling network, new major bus facilities, and improved walking corridors. Later this year, the City Rail Link will open, and rail access will be brought directly into the City Centre. The change in travel patterns and public transport access will be momentous. Maynard has worked with Auckland Transport and Auckland Council on several mapping projects, all depicting the City Centre in a different manner. The projects include maps for tourists visiting the city, focusing on major activity centres, destinations, and transport access; maps of the cycling network, inviting exploration of new trails that highlight a connected network; large scale wayfinding maps of immediate pedestrian networks, built environment and topographic context; and smaller-scale transport network maps, including Auckland’s new rail network map, to be launched with the opening of the City Rail Link. In this presentation, we present these various map products and discuss how understanding each user group impacted the cartographic system, including symbology, typography, and scale. We offer insight into the complex negotiations over language use and content disclosure that occur behind the scenes to ensure the designs remain simple and easy to use, while maintaining Auckland Council’s commitment to increasing the visibility of Māori language. We consider how each map operates both individually and within a wider user journey. No one map can grant the complete picture of a place as multifaceted as Auckland’s City Centre; however, our project experience provides an interesting case study of how cartographic systems can layer and complement, forming a kaleidoscopic view of a place. |
15:30 | Using QGIS 4.0 to meticulously place labels: How the pros do itKarl Baker (Toitū Te Whenua Land Information NZ) View abstractThe "carto_text" layer in the topographic database contains over 200k meticulously placed label geometries. These were created using 1Spatial's LAMPS2 (Laser-Scans Automated Map Production System) and uses an advanced labelling tool that was modified for use at LINZ. Currently this layer is not available from the LINZ Data Service (LDS) as it uses a licensed font that we cannot share.
With these tools we are repeating a process that took over a year for the original map series to a few months now. Nothing too technical, some pretty maps and instructions on how you can use our labels direct from the source. We even created our own version of an Open Source Font. I'll definitely throw in a reference to TaumatawhakatangihangakoauauoTamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu. |
15:50 | A QGIS plugin for making tiled and woven multivariate thematic mapsDavid O'Sullivan (Geospatial Stuff / University of Auckland) and Luke Bergmann View abstractAt previous meetings we have presented work on using tiled and woven patterns to enable presentation of multiple variables in a single map view (see O'Sullivan and Bergmann 2026 and In press for the latest). In this talk, we will demonstrate the newest development in this ongoing project, a QGIS plugin fully integrated with the layer styling capabilities of QGIS. This enables creation of tiled and woven multivariate thematic maps, without the need to write any code. |
16:10 | Fear and Loathing in Cartography: Learning to Live with Technological ChangeKenneth Field (Esri) View abstractAs we are all well aware, cartography is (defined as) an art, science and technology. And while arguably the art and science develops at a steady pace, the technological aspect of how we do our work has often changed rapidly, and with little notice. And so we find ourselves as a community at yet another technological inflection point. Re-tool, or die. Maybe? There’s been a lot of noise about AI over the last year or so, and it’s blown up in geo-circles too. Ian Muehlenhaus and I have been experimenting with AI in an exercise we’ve called #365DaysOfMaps as part of our contribution to the research agenda of the International Cartographic Association (daily blogs, write-ups, thoughts at mapdesign.icaci.org). We began to recognise in late 2025 that AI was likely the next big technological paradigm shift in cartography. We’ve both seen a few of these shifts having trained with pens, French curves, darkroom technology, then desktop publishing, GIS, Illustration software, mainframes, terminals, desktops, the web, mobile, and cloud computing (phew!). We missed out on the shift from clay tablet to papyrus, and copperplate engraving to lithography, but we’ve seen enough to appreciate that every now and again technology rears its head and transforms the way we do our work (the how of what we do). It’s often transformative. Sometimes you don’t need to jump all in. Often, old skills die, but you develop new ways to work too. This is the way! New technologies bring new map-makers, and new approaches. But what we’ve generally noticed is that any time there’s a major technological schism it comes with a tremendous amount of fear, trepidation, sometimes panic, and occasional loathing from within the cartographic community. In this talk I will reflect on the reasons this might be the case, as I review what we’ve learnt during our AI mapping experiment to date. Maybe age allows some of us to see change as part of the natural cycle of professional activity while, for some, it’s the first time such a threat has emerged. And we offer a ten-point plan for how we feel AI can be used (presently) in a useful way by cartographers, and to quell the palpable concerns raised. Along the way we hope to prove we are not being professionally negligent, unethical, or AI proponent slopmerchants – all pretty harsh epithets we’ve faced on our AI mapping journey to date. AI is not a cartographer. It’s not going to replace the cartographer. But it can and will do harm unless it’s controlled, slowly, and with intent. In some respects the importance and value of the cartographic craft has never been more important. |
Sit back and enjoy this inspiring cartographic ride! In this presentation, the speakers share some truly mesmerizing maps to demonstrate the cartographic power and flexibility of the ArcGIS system. Go beyond the defaults and discover how you can bend ArcGIS to your every cartographic whim to bring data to life using innovative and imaginative techniques. See maps that you maybe have not even considered, let alone thought possible, and learn ideas and workflows that you can use creatively in your own work. Get inspired to create compelling maps and make them sing and dance in new and exciting ways.
LAST-MODIFIED:20260814T013823Z SEQUENCE:3200979 LOCATION:Vivian Street 139\, 6040 Wellington\, Wellington\, New Zealand GEO:-41.29560640;174.77557020 X-ROOMS:Lecture Theatre 1 X-LOCATION-DISPLAYNAME:VUW Te Aro [Lecture Theatre 1] X-ACCESS:1 X-HITS:49 X-COLOR:530000 X-SHOW-END-TIME:1 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Pacific/Auckland:20260828T103000 DTEND;TZID=Pacific/Auckland:20260828T105000 UID:7C341412-0680-4E14-9D05-15CCBB193A6D SUMMARY:Morning Break CREATED:20260708T005610Z DTSTAMP:20260708T005610Z URL:https://cartography.org.nz/geocart2026/schedule/am-break-3 LAST-MODIFIED:20260708T070929Z SEQUENCE:22399 LOCATION:Vivian Street 139\, 6040 Wellington\, Wellington\, New Zealand GEO:-41.29560640;174.77557020 X-ROOMS:Breakout Space - WIG101 X-LOCATION-DISPLAYNAME:VUW Te Aro [Breakout Space - WIG101] X-ACCESS:1 X-HITS:3 X-COLOR:707070 X-SHOW-END-TIME:1 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Pacific/Auckland:20260828T105000 DTEND;TZID=Pacific/Auckland:20260828T121000 UID:E4C30F1A-DD13-496A-8C97-7C49895B43F2 SUMMARY:Session 6A: Data and Map Services and Accessibility CREATED:20260708T004051Z DTSTAMP:20260708T004051Z URL:https://cartography.org.nz/geocart2026/schedule/session-data-map-services DESCRIPTION:\N\N\N\N10:50\N\N\NReflections on 25 years of freelance cartography - the challenges and the rewards\NRoger Smith (Geographx)\N\NView abstract\NRoger Smith made a mid-life decision in the late 1990s to dramatically change course, register a company and embark on a completely new career as a map maker. Now semi-retired, he takes a trip back down memory lane to explain why he made that decision, and to revisit and discuss some of his career highlights and low points, the rewards and the challenges experienced over the past 25 plus years. Much of this presentation focuses on the challenges and obstacles faced by Geographx, how they were tackled, and whether they were successfully overcome. \N\N\N\N\N\N11:10 \N\N\NExplore the three-dimensional world of geoscience data from the comfort of a web browser\NJenny Black (Earth Sciences NZ), Andrew Boyes, Zoey Chen, Matt Wilkins, and Phil Scadden\N\NView abstract\NMaps are one of the key tools in the geoscience toolbox used to communicate science. Through careful cartographic organization, maps distil ideas and information into a visual medium. Each component of any map is part of a longer story, often one that is detailed in reports that are inaccessible and impenetrable to people outside of the scientific community. Paper maps can be beautiful works of cartography but are limited to a specific scale and set of layers. Providing GIS datasets has a high barrier of entry, requiring GIS software and capability. Our interactive webmaps bypass these limitations, helping a wide range of users discover, explore and visualise data from the comfort of a web browser.When we published Tectonic and Bathymetric maps of Te Riu-a-Māui / Zealandia (Mortimer et al., 2020a, 2020b), we also created a companion website hosting webmaps of these posters - E Tūhura – Explore Zealandia (2020a). Our aim was to make the maps and their component parts more accessible, interrogatable, and provide some background information.\NUsers can build custom maps drawing on an extensive library of published geospatial data. They can explore the datasets relevant to their needs, and share a custom link to colleagues, stakeholders or friends. All this can be done from a web browser, with no need to install or licence specific software.\NIn recent years we’ve increased the functionality of our webmaps and made a wider range of layers available. The world does not exist in 2-dimensions, so we’ve added features allowing exploration and visualisation of complex three-dimensional datasets.\NUsers can create a dynamic cross-section anywhere in a 3D model. They can zoom into the upper layers, track the cursor location in cross-sections on the map, or hover to get depth info on the virtual drillholes (Figure 1). The codebase sits on stack of open source projects. The front-end mapping is built on Leaflet, AngularJS, and also uses many utilities like proj4js. The backend is built on Java Spring with H2 Database to store configurations, with Batik being used for SVG output and JTS for spatial operations. Layers can be sourced from ESRI servers, TMS/WMTS servers, KML and GeoJSON, with over 900 layers published from GeoServer. We’re investigating making the cross-section tool open source (it is currently refactored as a separate API).\NReturning to the bathymetric map (Mortimer et al., 2020b), we use ESRI StoryMaps paired with our embedded webmaps to explain the thoughts, concepts, and data behind the bathymetry webmap (E Tūhura – Explore Zealandia, 2020b) and poster. The StoryMap (Boyes et al., 2024) explains the methods, both historic and modern, used to create bathymetric maps. It has introduced our users to our webmaps and provided valuable context on the data they contain.\NIn summary, a range of web tools have proved useful to communicate complex three-dimensional data and scientific concepts. Combining the flexibility and customisation of interactive webmaps, with the simple storytelling of a StoryMap allows us to reach a larger and more diverse audience than traditional paper maps and printed reports. We’re keen to learn what the community would find useful, to feed into future development.\N\N\N\N\N\N11:30\N\N\NThe challenges of making maps more accessible: Experiments with writing accessibility descriptions for static and interactive maps\NAmy L. Griffin (RMIT University), Ching Chou, Ava Steinhardt, and Anthony C. Robinson\N\NView abstract\NMost maps are designed as visual objects, making them difficult or impossible for people with some level of visual impairment to use. Yet maps are also fundamental to many everyday tasks in today's world. Although improving technologies means it is easier than it used to be to design sonic or tactile maps for people with visual impairments, most maps do not get translated from a visual form to an accessible form.\NAudio descriptions provide one way of translating visual maps for vision impaired map readers, and for web-delivered maps, these can be listened to using a screen reader. However, it can take a long time to listen to a complete map description. Imagine needing to listen for ten minutes only to find that the map doesn’t actually contain the information you’re looking for. You’d be pretty annoyed!\NAlt-text tags, which are a component of web pages, are supposed to provide a succinct description that can assist someone using a screen reader in assessing the relevance of visual images. However, many maps on webpages are missing alt-text tags. We believe this is partly because mapmakers do not know what to write. It is, after all, challenging to sum up a map in as few as 150 characters.\NThis presentation explores some of our experiments with using AI to make writing alt-text easier for both static and interactive maps, in the hopes that an easy-to-use AI-assisted workflow will improve the number of maps on the web that have useful alt-text descriptions. Combined with the work of other researchers who focus on producing comprehensive audio descriptions of maps, we hope our work can help to make maps more universally accessible.\N\N\N\N\N\N11:50\N\N\NMaximising the operational benefit of publicly available LiDAR data for foresters\NTodd Redpath (Interpine Group Ltd), David Herries, Susana Gonzalez, Jack Guo, Joo Hyun Ahn, Sam West, and Aki Yang\N\NView abstract\NForestry is an inherently spatial industry, and New Zealand's forestry sector has a long history of adopting geospatial technologies to support planning, inventory, and operational decision-making. As the availability of publicly funded LiDAR data continues to increase through the Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) National Elevation Programme, forest managers have unprecedented access to detailed three-dimensional information describing forest structure and terrain. The increasing ubiquity of UAV platforms capable of flexible and timely LiDAR acquisition further expands the volume of three-dimensional data available for forest measurement and characterisation. While data availability is no longer a significant limitation, timely and consistent conversion of large and complex point cloud datasets into practical spatial and cartographic products that can support operational decisions in the field remains a challenge. LiDAR data provides substantial value for plantation forest management. In addition to generating high-resolution digital elevation models and canopy height models, LiDAR enables individual tree detection (ITD) and crown delineation, providing a pathway for estimating forest stocking and stand structure across entire forests. These approaches can complement traditional field inventory programmes and support more efficient assessment of forest resources. Building on more than a decade of experience developing operational LiDAR workflows, Interpine has developed SilvaCloud, part of the TreeTools suite. SilvaCloud is an online platform that allows users to upload LiDAR point cloud data and automatically generate a range of spatial products. These include digital terrain models, canopy height models, delineated tree crowns, individual tree locations, and associated LiDAR-derived attributes such as tree height and crown geometry. A key focus of SilvaCloud is transforming complex LiDAR datasets into cartographic products that are readily accessible to forest managers. The platform automatically generates geo-referenced maps and spatial layers showing variables such as tree height, stocking, and operational thinning targets. These products are designed for direct use in GIS and mobile mapping applications, enabling rapid field interpretation and supporting decisions around silviculture, inventory, harvest planning and resource assessment. Stocking estimates, reported as stems per hectare (SPH), have shown good agreement with traditional field inventory approaches and are well within typical operational tolerances. Although initially developed to support pre-thinning assessment and silvicultural planning, SilvaCloud has also been applied to forest asset due diligence, pre-harvest inventory, and the integration of publicly available LiDAR datasets into existing forest mapping workflows. This presentation will demonstrate how publicly available LiDAR data can be transformed into practical cartographic products that support operational forestry, highlighting case studies from New Zealand plantation forests. By automating the conversion of large point-cloud datasets into accessible maps and spatial information products, SilvaCloud reduces the time and technical complexity required for forest managers to address operational needs with increasingly available three-dimensional data. \N\N\N\N\N X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:10:50 | Reflections on 25 years of freelance cartography - the challenges and the rewardsRoger Smith (Geographx) View abstractRoger Smith made a mid-life decision in the late 1990s to dramatically change course, register a company and embark on a completely new career as a map maker. Now semi-retired, he takes a trip back down memory lane to explain why he made that decision, and to revisit and discuss some of his career highlights and low points, the rewards and the challenges experienced over the past 25 plus years. Much of this presentation focuses on the challenges and obstacles faced by Geographx, how they were tackled, and whether they were successfully overcome. |
11:10 | Explore the three-dimensional world of geoscience data from the comfort of a web browserJenny Black (Earth Sciences NZ), Andrew Boyes, Zoey Chen, Matt Wilkins, and Phil Scadden View abstractMaps are one of the key tools in the geoscience toolbox used to communicate science. Through careful cartographic organization, maps distil ideas and information into a visual medium. Each component of any map is part of a longer story, often one that is detailed in reports that are inaccessible and impenetrable to people outside of the scientific community. Paper maps can be beautiful works of cartography but are limited to a specific scale and set of layers. Providing GIS datasets has a high barrier of entry, requiring GIS software and capability. Our interactive webmaps bypass these limitations, helping a wide range of users discover, explore and visualise data from the comfort of a web browser. Users can build custom maps drawing on an extensive library of published geospatial data. They can explore the datasets relevant to their needs, and share a custom link to colleagues, stakeholders or friends. All this can be done from a web browser, with no need to install or licence specific software. In recent years we’ve increased the functionality of our webmaps and made a wider range of layers available. The world does not exist in 2-dimensions, so we’ve added features allowing exploration and visualisation of complex three-dimensional datasets. Users can create a dynamic cross-section anywhere in a 3D model. They can zoom into the upper layers, track the cursor location in cross-sections on the map, or hover to get depth info on the virtual drillholes (Figure 1). The codebase sits on stack of open source projects. The front-end mapping is built on Leaflet, AngularJS, and also uses many utilities like proj4js. The backend is built on Java Spring with H2 Database to store configurations, with Batik being used for SVG output and JTS for spatial operations. Layers can be sourced from ESRI servers, TMS/WMTS servers, KML and GeoJSON, with over 900 layers published from GeoServer. We’re investigating making the cross-section tool open source (it is currently refactored as a separate API). Returning to the bathymetric map (Mortimer et al., 2020b), we use ESRI StoryMaps paired with our embedded webmaps to explain the thoughts, concepts, and data behind the bathymetry webmap (E Tūhura – Explore Zealandia, 2020b) and poster. The StoryMap (Boyes et al., 2024) explains the methods, both historic and modern, used to create bathymetric maps. It has introduced our users to our webmaps and provided valuable context on the data they contain. In summary, a range of web tools have proved useful to communicate complex three-dimensional data and scientific concepts. Combining the flexibility and customisation of interactive webmaps, with the simple storytelling of a StoryMap allows us to reach a larger and more diverse audience than traditional paper maps and printed reports. We’re keen to learn what the community would find useful, to feed into future development. |
11:30 | The challenges of making maps more accessible: Experiments with writing accessibility descriptions for static and interactive mapsAmy L. Griffin (RMIT University), Ching Chou, Ava Steinhardt, and Anthony C. Robinson View abstractMost maps are designed as visual objects, making them difficult or impossible for people with some level of visual impairment to use. Yet maps are also fundamental to many everyday tasks in today's world. Although improving technologies means it is easier than it used to be to design sonic or tactile maps for people with visual impairments, most maps do not get translated from a visual form to an accessible form. Audio descriptions provide one way of translating visual maps for vision impaired map readers, and for web-delivered maps, these can be listened to using a screen reader. However, it can take a long time to listen to a complete map description. Imagine needing to listen for ten minutes only to find that the map doesn’t actually contain the information you’re looking for. You’d be pretty annoyed! Alt-text tags, which are a component of web pages, are supposed to provide a succinct description that can assist someone using a screen reader in assessing the relevance of visual images. However, many maps on webpages are missing alt-text tags. We believe this is partly because mapmakers do not know what to write. It is, after all, challenging to sum up a map in as few as 150 characters. This presentation explores some of our experiments with using AI to make writing alt-text easier for both static and interactive maps, in the hopes that an easy-to-use AI-assisted workflow will improve the number of maps on the web that have useful alt-text descriptions. Combined with the work of other researchers who focus on producing comprehensive audio descriptions of maps, we hope our work can help to make maps more universally accessible. |
11:50 | Maximising the operational benefit of publicly available LiDAR data for forestersTodd Redpath (Interpine Group Ltd), David Herries, Susana Gonzalez, Jack Guo, Joo Hyun Ahn, Sam West, and Aki Yang View abstractForestry is an inherently spatial industry, and New Zealand's forestry sector has a long history of adopting geospatial technologies to support planning, inventory, and operational decision-making. As the availability of publicly funded LiDAR data continues to increase through the Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) National Elevation Programme, forest managers have unprecedented access to detailed three-dimensional information describing forest structure and terrain. The increasing ubiquity of UAV platforms capable of flexible and timely LiDAR acquisition further expands the volume of three-dimensional data available for forest measurement and characterisation. While data availability is no longer a significant limitation, timely and consistent conversion of large and complex point cloud datasets into practical spatial and cartographic products that can support operational decisions in the field remains a challenge. LiDAR data provides substantial value for plantation forest management. In addition to generating high-resolution digital elevation models and canopy height models, LiDAR enables individual tree detection (ITD) and crown delineation, providing a pathway for estimating forest stocking and stand structure across entire forests. |
10:50 | Digitalisation through PGIS and Citizen Science for Improved Water Governance in the Philippi Horticultural Area community, Cape Town, South AfricaHelen de Klerk (Lincoln University), Tyrel Flügel, and Leanne Seeliger View abstractReliable access to clean water is fundamental to human wellbeing, food production, and economic activity. However, in many urban and peri-urban environments, governments face significant challenges in managing water infrastructure and ensuring equitable access. These challenges are intensified in socio-ecologically complex settings where multiple stakeholders interact across fragmented institutional arrangements. In such contexts, water governance extends beyond technical management (Rosso, 2025) to include questions of power, participation, accountability, and justice. Unlike water management, which is often technical and centralised, water governance encompasses broader social, political, and ethical dimensions, including whose knowledge counts and how conflicts are resolved. This paper sets out to understand if digitalisation and citizen science, embedded within an adaptive collaborative water governance framework, can improve water governance in the complex, resource-constrained environment of the Philippi Horticultural Area (PHA) in Cape Town, South Africa. To explore the role of digitalisation, three citizen science interventions were implemented, namely (i) a digital questionnaire capturing stakeholder perceptions, (ii) a GIS-based mapping of the canal network, and (iii) a mobile water monitoring tool for reporting pollution incidents. The paper evaluates how these tools contributed to strengthen community-based water management through knowledge production, communication, and governance processes, while also identifying key barriers to their effectiveness. |
11:10 | Securing the future of mapmaking: Cultivating spatial literacy in New Zealand schoolsBrendon Robertson (Mt Aspiring College / NZ Board of Geography Teachers) View abstractIn geography, we ask the questions “What Is Where, Why There, and Why Care?” (Gritzner, 2002). This inquiry framework underpins the geography curriculum. The evolution of web-based GIS has democratized mapmaking, shifting secondary school geography from acoustic map interpretation to digital spatial data visualisation. Today, New Zealand geography students are no longer just consumers of maps; they are creators of maps, using the ArcGIS Online suite to visualise geographic inquiries and tackle real-world spatial problems. However, moving from automated software defaults to effective, meaningful cartography remains a significant learning curve for both ako and akonga. This presentation explores the current state of spatial literacy and spatial storytelling within the Aotearoa/New Zealand geography curriculum. Drawing on authentic examples of student-designed maps and web applications from kura across Aotearoa/New Zealand, we discuss how schools are integrating GIS to teach fundamental design principles, data classification, and visual hierarchy. Discussing how GIS empowers students' learning through project-based spatial problem solving. Look forward to what proposed curriculum changes may mean for the state of spatial literacy and the future of GIS in the New Zealand geography curriculum. Crucial to elevating these standards is the New Zealand Board of Geography Teachers (NZBoGT) GIS Kaihāpai program—a national grassroots mentoring initiative, funded through Network of Expertise (NEX) and run in partnership with Eagle Technology. We will share insights into how this program builds collective competency among educators, ensuring they can guide the next generation of Kiwi mapmakers toward impactful, accurate, and ethical spatial communication. As Kaihāpai, we see our role as a transformative process. By holding workshops, disseminating skills and information, we aim to empower kaiako in their understanding of GIS. This then raises the awareness of kaikao of the power of GIS and inspires them to seek out opportunities to weave (raranga) GIS through their programmes and practice. Using as a foundation in junior social studies applications such as Nat Geo MapMaker, Google My Maps, and ArcGIS, we are building an understanding of the functions and capabilities of GIS earlier in the secondary school curriculum.. creating a springboard for greater use in Senior Geography. “GIS is how we do geography now”. This mantra is important to emphasise the role that GIS plays in employment and study. It enables us to get students to engage with geographic data beyond a surface level. Using GIS enables students to make sense of place, to understand “what is where, why is it there, and why care" ( Gritzner, 2002) |
11:30 | Making boundaries: How participatory mapping and walking enact multiple conservation boundariesUthpala Mudalige (Victoria University of Wellington), Mairéad de Róiste, and Brendon Blue View abstractConservation boundaries hold complex multiplicities. These boundaries are not simply fixed lines separating protected areas from local communities, but are lived, negotiated, practised, and materially shaped in different ways. Participatory mapping scholarship, including participatory GIS, counter-mapping, and Indigenous mapping, has acknowledged the multiplicity of conservation boundaries. Yet less attention has been given to how different participatory methods themselves shape and foreground these multiplicities. Our research addresses this methodological gap by comparing participatory mapping with participatory walking of the boundaries of the Ritigala protected area in Sri Lanka. The research involved five participatory mapping sessions with local communities living around the protected area, followed by participatory walks along conservation boundaries. The research examined how these two methods engage with boundaries differently and how their methodological conditions shape the boundary realities that emerge. The findings show that maps tend to present conservation boundaries as fixed, visible, and permanent cartographic lines. These mapped boundaries are shaped by the scale, quality, and date of the satellite image base map, as well as by the sequence and location of mapping sessions. In contrast, participatory walks revealed boundaries as fluid, porous, and constantly changing zones. Movement through the landscape, embodied experiences of place, direct encounters with difficult terrain and risk, and the temporal and seasonal conditions present during walking foregrounded multiple and shifting boundary realities. Boundary realities are produced differently, not only between methods but also within the same method. Different mapping and walking sessions produced varying understandings of boundaries depending on factors such as participant composition, gender relations, and social tensions. Multiplicity, therefore, emerges not only through different methods but also through the varying methodological conditions within them. We argue for rethinking participatory mapping in terms of engaging with multiple local realities. We suggest that participatory mapping can better engage with ontological multiplicity through repeated mapping sessions, different participant groups and locations, flexible scales and base maps, and closer integration between mapping and participatory walking. |
11:50 | Progress on a multi-criteria evaluation-based Coastal Asset Risk Index (CARI) for Aotearoa New ZealandAntoni B. Moore (University of Otago), Owyn Aitken, Quyen Nguyen, Yeongju Lee, Ivan Diaz-Rainey, Gregory E. Bodeker, and Simon C. Cox View abstractThe task of estimating property value loss due to Climate Change-Related flooding hazards is a complicated and difficult one. As an initial step towards this, the multidisciplinary STRAND lab (a group of financial, physical and geospatial scientists across Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia - https://www.strand-lab.org/) have used physical modelling to combine hazard criteria such as Sea Level Rise (SLR) estimates (Fox-Kemper et al, 2021), groundwater (Cox et al 2025) and vulnerability criteria (e.g. elevation) to calculate built asset loss in South Dunedin using methods that incorporate uncertainty (Nguyen et al, 2023). Hazards and vulnerability (including resilience) comprise, along with exposure, three objectives that have together defined climate change-related risk (Fox-Kemper et al, 2021). The physical modelling described above does not therefore incorporate the full breadth of risk objectives. Hazards (storm surges, rainfall) and vulnerability (slope, sea defences) criteria are not covered, while exposure (notwithstanding exposed property) and resilience (separated from vulnerability and designated as a fourth objective) are unaddressed by the explicit modelling. Exposed cultural and financial assets as well as resilience through effective emergency infrastructure and community strength need to be factored in. This was the impetus for the creation of a Coastal Asset Risk Index (CARI), based on a multi-criteria evaluation powered by expert knowledge (Saaty, 1980) and adapted to geospatial applications (e.g. Malczewski, 1999). A simple pilot of CARI (Moore et al, 2024b) focused on coastal Otago, with expert knowledge elicited and spatial data collated for only two criteria per objective. The expert knowledge was extracted through pairwise comparison of objectives and their criteria, deriving relative weights of importance for these that were used to combine normalized raster layers through weighted overlay. For example, if SLR and groundwater were the two criteria for the hazards objective, and the expert-derived weighting rated SLR as being twice as important as groundwater, then the normalized raster representing SLR (a surrogate ‘distance to coast’ layer) will be weighted twice as much as the groundwater raster. The calculated hazard index would be weighted from objective-to-objective comparisons to combine with the other three objectives to derive the CARI map. This presentation provides updates on the nationwide CARI, which retains the four objectives that define risk, but expands the number of criteria per objective to six, attempting to cover most factors that relate to coastal asset risk (the result of an extensive literature search). Almost 20 financial and coastal experts filled out an online survey, in which objective and criteria pairwise scores were recorded, as well as expert confidence in those scores (a five point scale from No Confidence to High Confidence), in order to create a complete set of weights (Figure 1). Processing is currently underway to create the criteria, objective and risk maps. There are further stages in modelling spatial data quality (spatial and attribute data accuracy are independent of the expert weightings yet have a profound influence on the outputs) and spatial data veracity (the data may conceptually be ‘displaced’ from the criteria it represents – e.g. the distance to coast data representing SLR above has less veracity when compared to an elevation data layer representing real elevation) – Moore et al, 2024a. Modelling fuzziness in the weightings (e.g. Tahri et al, 2017), with the expert confidence scores as input, will address the limitation that all knowledge elicited is certain. This will mean that a score from an expert with low confidence will not impact the CARI as much as a score from an expert with high confidence. |