Paper land-resource inventory worksheets later captured as GIS polygons.
The first edition of the New Zealand Land Resource Inventory was surveyed at 1:63,360 between 1973 and 1979, using stereo aerial photographs, existing reference maps and fieldwork. Its worksheets recorded rock, soil, slope, erosion, vegetation and land-use capability for land units.
Digitising the worksheets turned a national paper inventory into a reusable GIS database. The mapped units from that original survey remain distinct from subsequent regional remapping, corrected geography and revised national capability legends.