Glossary

Basemap. The background map layer the rest of the map is drawn on top of — aerial imagery, a topographic map or a street map. WEXWatch shows one basemap at a time, from either LINZ or Google. See The map.

EXIF. Exchangeable Image File Format: the block of metadata a camera writes inside a photo file. It can include the GPS position, the time the photo was taken, the device, and the exposure settings. WEXWatch requires the GPS position and uses the capture time. Editing, exporting or sending a photo through some apps strips EXIF, which is why an edited photo is often rejected.

Geotagged. A photo that carries GPS coordinates in its EXIF metadata. Every issue in WEXWatch is created from a geotagged photo.

Issue. One recorded observation in the field: a photo, a position, a description, a status and a timeline. Also referred to as a location or a pin.

LINZ. Land Information New Zealand, the government agency responsible for land titles, survey, topographic mapping and the national aerial imagery programme. WEXWatch uses LINZ Basemaps for aerial and topographic layers, and the LINZ Data Service for property parcel boundaries.

NZTM2000. New Zealand Transverse Mercator 2000, formally EPSG:2193. The national projected coordinate system, expressing position as an easting and a northing in metres. It is what LINZ, councils, surveyors and asset systems use in New Zealand, and because it is in metres, distances between NZTM coordinates can be measured directly.

Parcel. A defined piece of land in the cadastre — broadly, a property or a titled area, including road parcels. The parcel overlay draws these boundaries so you can see whether an issue falls inside the road reserve or on private land. Parcel boundaries are a legal record rather than a survey of what is physically on the ground.

PostGIS. The spatial extension to the PostgreSQL database, which lets WEXWatch store positions as geometry and answer questions such as "what is within 50 metres of this point".

Revocation. The formal process by which a road stops being a state highway and becomes a local road under the control of the local authority. Following the Waikato Expressway opening, the old route through Huntly is being revoked, which requires a clear, agreed record of the condition of the assets being handed over. That record is what WEXWatch exists to hold.

SH1B. State Highway 1B, the route through the Huntly area affected by the revocation programme.

Timeline. The chronological record attached to an issue: the original upload and every note added since. Entries are added rather than overwritten.

WEX. The Waikato Expressway, the section of State Highway 1 built to bypass the old route. WEXWatch takes its name from the programme.

WGS84. World Geodetic System 1984, formally EPSG:4326. The global latitude and longitude system used by GPS receivers, phone cameras and web mapping services. It is what comes out of a photo's EXIF metadata, and WEXWatch converts it to NZTM2000 for local use — both are stored. See Addresses, coordinates and elevation.