only what volunteers have mapped in OSM — the network operators
don’t offer their line geometry for download (central Auckland is
largely underground). Authoritative views:
Vector network map ·
Transpower open data (national grid)
PLANNING & RISK
highlights zone types created to enable density — Terrace Housing
& Apartment Buildings, Mixed Housing Urban, Two-Storey Medium Density
(AUP 2016 & later plan changes); not a parcel-level before/after diff
Red — beach & marine threat
Orange — most land evacuations
Yellow — worst-case evacuation
SKY & TIME
drag rotate · right-drag pan · scroll zoom · hover for
details · double-click to fly to a building
✦ Matariki rises in the north-east before dawn — mānawatia a Matariki
TĀMAKI MAKAURAU · DRAWN ENTIRELY FROM OPEN DATA
by Amy X. Chen · github.com/amyxqc
Sixty-one thousand buildings, the streets that pulse between them, the volcanic
ground beneath — and the winter sky above. Every light in this city is a
record: an OpenStreetMap footprint, a Unitary Plan zone, a LiDAR elevation, a
tsunami line on a council map. And this week, before dawn, the nine stars of
Matariki rise over the north-east horizon to open the Māori new year.
hover any building for its records · double-click to fly
to it · slide the clock through the day · toggle the layers
Power lines & substations: OpenStreetMap (ODbL) —
indicative only: what volunteers have mapped, mostly overhead
11 kV. Central Auckland’s distribution network (Vector) is
largely underground and not open data; the only national-grid asset
in this window is
Transpower’s 220 kV Hobson St cable
Terrain & heights: Auckland Council 2024 LiDAR DEM
(1 m source, packed to a 15 m grid) and the matching 2024 DSM
(2 m) for derived building heights, CC-BY 4.0
Tsunami evacuation zones: Auckland Emergency Management,
via Auckland Council Open Data, CC-BY 4.0
Bus & school-bus routes and stops, train corridors &
stations, and the cycling network (facility type, status, local
board): Auckland Transport BusService,
Train_Route, Train_Station & Cycling_Network datasets via
Auckland Open Data, CC-BY 4.0 — hover any route, stop or
station for its record
Parks: Auckland Council Park Extents (3,944 regional records
with name, local board & address — hover any park), CC-BY 4.0
Wastewater mains: Watercare pipe network open data (laterals excluded)
Derived statistics
Corridor evidence: per-building distance to the nearest major road
(spatial join over 61,228 centroids) crossed with zone codes —
35% of residential buildings ≤150 m of an arterial are in
higher-density zones vs 6% beyond 300 m.
Caveat: the “intensification zones” highlight
classifies today’s zone types (Terrace Housing &
Apartments, Mixed Housing Urban, Two-Storey Medium Density) —
zones created to enable density — not a parcel-by-parcel diff
against pre-2016 district plans.
Confidence & heights method
Heights are now LiDAR-measured for almost every building.
Where OSM carries a height or storey tag (319 + 1,475 buildings) that
value is kept; for the rest, height = the median 2024 LiDAR DSM
sample inside the footprint (2 m pixels, interior only) minus the
DEM ground at the centroid. Every hover tooltip discloses which
source a building uses.
Known limits of DSM heights: tree canopy overhanging a small
structure can inflate its median; roof medians sit below parapets on
flat-roofed towers; and buildings too small to contain a 2 m interior
pixel keep the 4 m default.
Footprints, zoning, terrain, and networks don’t depend on
height — the zoning shares, corridor statistics, and
tsunami/terrain analysis are independent of the height method.