A ground-breaking aerial laser survey has enabled the creation of an exact 3D map of Taranaki for the first time. Taranaki Regional Council has worked with Toitū Te Whenua Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) on the LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) survey to gather land-surface and elevation data. The survey involved a small twin-engine plane flying over Taranaki in 2021 using LiDAR laser scanning to map the terrain.