M. S. Colley

M. S. Colley’s 1979 Canterbury computer-science MSc thesis designed an automated system for converting cadastral maps from the imperial grid to the new metric mapping system. It examined cartographic-quality computer output and a data structure joining graphical and descriptive information. The thesis documents practical software and data-design questions in New Zealand’s early computer-mapping work.

M. S. Colley developed MAPPAK during MSc work in Computer Science at the University of Canterbury around requirements supplied by Lands and Survey, and documented the work in a 1979 thesis, A Computer System for a Cadastral Mapping Application. Colley described MAPPAK as being used for both rural and urban cadastral compilation. The thesis covered automated conversion between map series, computer-produced cartography, graphical and descriptive data structures, editing, plotting and proposed land-information processing. The 1979 thesis described both operational functions and proposed features.