Departments/Research

By Greg Overton, BRANZ Building Performance Engineer

BRANZ Maps
goes mobile
BRANZ Maps, a free online geographic information system (GIS) with
information on New Zealand addresses, is now even more useful. You
can access it from any mobile device to check wind zones and much more.
BRANZ MAPS DELIVERS immediate coun-

Wind Mapping project. This project allowed

trywide information that would otherwise

BRANZ researchers to explore some of the

do not include the extra high wind zone.

Wind speed calculations are also potentially

sit solely with individual councils and their

possibilities of GIS software to see if it could

inconsistent. Site wind speeds are currently

varying levels of available GIS services.

create useful wind zone information.

calculated using the method in AS/NZS

When launched in 2012, it included expo-

Wind zones were a useful GIS test due to

1170.2:2011 Structural design actions Part 2:

sure (corrosion risk) and earthquake zones

recent changes. NZS 3604:2011 references

Wind actions. This requires interpretation by

derived from NZS 3604:2011 Timber-framed

the new loading standards, AS/NZS 1170

the practitioner so may result in differing wind

buildings. Climate zones and rainfall intensi-

Structural design actions, and introduced the

speeds and, subsequently, wind pressures.

ties were then added, and now wind zone

extra high wind zone. However, many council

information is included.

wind maps are still based on the old loading

NZS 3604:2011 simplified calculation

standards (NZS 4203:1992 General structural

The wind zone calculation specified in NZS

design and design loadings for buildings) and

3604:2011 is a simplified version of the

New GIS makes maps mobile

By migrating BRANZ Maps to ArcGIS Online,

Table 1

BRANZ Maps can now function on mobile

Steps to determine wind zones

devices, including phones and tablets.

Both the desktop and mobile versions now
have a find me function so users can find the

STEPS

ACTION

VALUES AVAILABLE

Determine wind region

A, W

Determine if in a lee zone

between versions. However, the viewer func-

Determine ground roughness

Urban terrain, open terrain

tionality is different, so have a play around.

Determine site exposure

Sheltered, exposed

Mapping new wind zones

Determine topographic class

Gentle to steep

Determine wind zone

L, M, H, VH, EH

zonal information for a location when on site.

The source data behind the old and new
versions of BRANZ Maps is identical, so the
information at a particular address is the same

BRANZ Maps includes the results of BRANZ

research projects such as the Automated

Adapted from NZS 3604:2011 Table 5.1. Provided by Standards New Zealand under licence 001133.

78 April/May 2015 Build 147

calculation used in AS/NZS 1170.2:2011 (see

explanation in Build 128, pages 2427). The
simplified method, which still requires some
interpretation by practitioners, has six steps
(see Table 1).

Steps 1 and 2
Steps 1 and 2 use a map from NZS 3604:2011.
A digitised version of the map was created
using a digital pen to trace the paper map
and transfer it to the GIS software.

Steps 3 and 4
Steps 3 and 4 are very difficult to implement directly in GIS software as they

Figure 1: Wellington wind zones Wellington City Council data (left) and the automated BRANZ Maps (right).

involve counting the number of obstruc-

that each 80 m by 80 m pixel in the DEM now

tions houses and trees around a site. As

has a wind zone associated with it.

vary around a particular site (see Figure 2).

a crude approximation for the project, land

use data from Landcare Research was used:

Strikingly similar to hand-drawn maps

For ground roughness, urban areas were

As there is little to compare the final

Wind zones an indicative starting point

taken as the land-use areas designated as

computer-generated map with, it is hard

Clearly, the wind zones in BRANZ Maps should

built-up areas and forests and these areas

to say how right or wrong the results are.

be treated as guidance. Site-specific wind data

Wellington City Councils up-to-date data

may still need to be calculated by using the

were then trimmed by 500 m. Open areas

For that reason, it is useful to plot the wind

region layer so that you can see how the results

were deemed to be everything else.

(see koordinates.com/layer/1443-wellington-

For site exposure, sheltered areas were the

city-wind-zones) was used to compare with

same built-up and forest areas but trimmed

the automated version (see Figure 1).

method in AS/NZS 1170.2:2011.

In lieu of a site-specific calculation, a
councilwide wind map generated by struc-

by 100 m (representing two rows of obstruc-

The automated map is clearly not exactly

tions) and with steep areas removed (see

the same as the hand-calculated maps.

Step 5). Exposed areas were everything else.

However, given the approximations made in

However, with the lack of council wind

the calculation, the maps are strikingly similar.

maps, BRANZ Maps data is a useful starting

Step 5
Step 5 relates to the topographic class of

tural engineers should also be more accurate

than the wind zones in BRANZ Maps.

point or cross-reference for people performing

the site and requires the ground slope to be

Maximum value used for address

calculated in accordance with NZS 3604:2011.

In BRANZ Maps, the wind zone for an

To automate this calculation, BRANZ used an

address is the maximum value that inter-

openly available digital elevation model (DEM)

sects any portion of the address parcel. For

of New Zealand, courtesy of LINZ.

example, the BRANZ site comes out as extra

appreciated, as well as suggestions about what

high, but most of the area is actually very high.

new information should be included.

A DEM splits the area of interest in this

their own wind zone calculations.

For more

To see the new versions of BRANZ

Maps, visit branz.maps.arcgis.com.

Feedback from users of BRANZ Maps is

case, the whole country into a number of

pixels, each with an associated height.
The DEM used on the project has a pixel
size of 80 m by 80 m. Higher-resolution data
is available but was deemed unsuitable for a
countrywide analysis.
It was then processed to create a network of
ridges and channels that was used to calculate
the slope and topographic class. Again, this
involved a series of assumptions to allow an
approximate classification to take place.

Step 6
Step 6 combines all the information together
to work out the final wind zone. The result is

Figure 2: Wind zones of the BRANZ site from BRANZ Maps.

Build 147 April/May 2015 79