GfK releases new geodata for Australia and New Zealand

Bruchsal, Germany, 23 June 2016 – GfK has released new, expanded map editions for Australia and New Zealand that reflect the latest regional changes. Digital maps of administrative and postal regions comprise the foundation for location-based analyses, or geomarketing, for companies across all industries.

GfK updated its digital maps for Australia and New Zealand and also ex-panded them with many additional administrative levels. Maps featuring comprehensive coverage of the latest two- and four-digit postcode bounda-ries are available for both countries. In addition to postcode boundaries, the new GfK maps also offer first-ever coverage of all administrative levels of Australia and New Zealand, down to the very detailed census regions known as "mesh blocks".

"An up-to-date cartographic basis is a prerequisite for carrying out market analyses in companies from all industries," explains Klaus Dittmann, head of cartography in GfK's Geomarketing solution area. "In this latest update, we were able to substantially expand and refine our coverage thanks to new mesh block data. Users of our maps benefit from a highly detailed basis for their analyses and planning endeavors. This enables them to more precisely locate the risk and opportunities in their markets. In Austral-ia and New Zealand there is freely available census data on mesh block level. Users can import this data into our corresponding maps to carry out highly detailed analyses of market potential."

New additions
Newly created administrative maps for six detail levels are now available for Australia. These range from states and territories and statistical areas in four levels of detail (between 92 to 54,775 regions) down to the high granular mesh blocks, which encompass more than 347,000 regions.

Postcode boundaries are available in all detail levels down to the 2,652 four-digit boundaries. GfK redigitized all postcode boundaries to fit seam-lessly with the detailed mesh blocks.
Four new administrative levels are available for New Zealand. These in-clude 17 regional councils, 68 territorial authorities, 239 wards and 46,390 mesh blocks. GfK also offers maps of the country's 63 two-digit and 1,080 four-digit postcodes. The boundaries of these regions were also adjusted on the basis of the highly detailed mesh blocks.

Both country editions feature important topographic information for reinsur-ance users, including maps of riverways and bodies of water. The map editions for Australia and New Zealand also include city points organized according to six population size categories.

Applications
The GfK maps for Australia and New Zealand give companies a reliable foundation for regional business planning and risk analyses. Detailed digital maps serve as an important basis of planning for the finance, reinsurance, retail, consumer goods and logistics industries.

The reinsurance industry requires digital maps with precise regional boundaries in order to accurately estimate accumulation risks from natural disasters such as storms, earthquakes and floods. GfK is the official sup-plier of the CRESTA zones, which comprise a uniform international stand-ard for risk analysis in the reinsurance industry. GfK also offers the world's largest collection of administrative and postcode maps.

Availability
GfK's maps for Australia and New Zealand are available in all standard map formats, including *.shp (ESRI), *.tab (MapInfo), *.lay (RegioGraph) and Oracle Spatial. All maps are vector-based and consequently offer infi-nite zoom and flexible viewing options. Comprehensive coverage is provid-ed of all regional levels, and all regional boundaries fit together seamlessly, both within each country and with the other maps offered by GfK.