LINZ and its predecessors have been responsible for cadastral data in New Zealand for more than a hundred years.

A record of cadastral surveys along with other support information and must be lodged with a LINZ Processing Centre. The exact requirements have varied over time in accordance with survey regulations as set by the Surveyor General. The current form is a Cadastral Survey dataset (CSD), but early (simpler) forms were more simply known as 'survey plans' because most information was drawn on the graphic plan. Because of this history, the term 'survey plan' is still in common usage (although no longer technically correct) to describe the set of information that details a survey.

All 'CSD's are checked to ensure they comply with the survey regulations and any legislation that may affect the survey. When a plan is found to be correct, it is approved as to survey by Land Information NZ (or formerly the Chief Surveyor). It then becomes the property of the Crown.

The survey references (plan numbers) are unique for each Land District until the implementation of Landonline where a sequential national numbering system was introduced for CSD's (starting from 300,000).

There are three primary categories of plans/CSD's that comprise the bulk of all plans and are identifiable by their prefix.

Survey Office Plans (SO Plans)

Usually surveys for the Crown. They generally depict surveys of land required for a specific purpose (e.g. schools, road, etc or subdivision of land owned by the Crown (e.g. land for Crown townships and other settlements).

Maori Land Plans (ML Plans)

Depict surveys of land, or partitions of land to support Court Orders that are subject to the Maori affairs Act, or Te Ture Whenua Maori (Maori Land Act), 1993. These plans have no legal effect on Title until they are signed by a Maori Land Court Judge

Land Transfer Plans (LT Plans) or Deposited Plans (DP Plans)

Show freehold land or subdivisions of the same, carried out under the Land Transfer Act 1952. While these plans are initially referred to as Land Transfer Plans, once they have met the requirements for title purposes, they become Deposited Plans, with the number prefix changing from LT to DP.

Note:

The South Auckland Land District was divided out of the former Auckland District in 1963. Since then the Land Transfer plans for the new district have been numbered with the prefix of either LTS or DPS, to distinguish them from Auckland plans.