Bestand Bodemgebruik 2017 (Land Use File) — CBS / Netherlands

What This Dataset Is

A complete digital map of land use in the Netherlands for the year 2017, produced by CBS (Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek / Statistics Netherlands). Every parcel of land in the country is classified by its functional use at ground level: transportation, buildings, recreation, agriculture, forest, water, and more.

CBS has tracked Dutch land use since 1900. The Bestand Bodemgebruik (BBG) series provides a consistent time series, allowing analysis of how the Netherlands has changed over decades — from agricultural land being converted to housing, to urban expansion, to nature restoration.

Important: This is the BBG 2017 edition, produced under the old methodology. From 2020 onwards, CBS produces the NBBG (Nieuw Bestand Bodemgebruik / Renewed Land Use File) which uses semi-automated procedures and digital base registries (BAG, BGT, BRT) instead of manual interpretation. The two are not directly comparable due to methodological differences.

Source: https://www.pdok.nl/introductie/-/article/cbs-bestand-bodemgebruik-2017 CBS page: https://www.cbs.nl/nl-nl/dossier/nederland-regionaal/geografische-data/natuur-en-milieu/bestand-bodemgebruik Provider: CBS (Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek / Statistics Netherlands) License: CC0 (public domain) Reference year: 2017 WFS endpoint: https://service.pdok.nl/cbs/bestandbodemgebruik/2017/wfs/v1_0 WMS endpoint: https://service.pdok.nl/cbs/bestandbodemgebruik/2017/wms/v1_0 Feature type: bestandbodemgebruik:BBG2017

How to Access

GeoParquet and PMTiles files are available from Source Cooperative. Native CRS is EPSG:28992 (RD New / Amersfoort) — coordinates are in meters.

Base URL: https://data.source.coop/cholmes/portolan-nl/cbs/bestand_bodemgebruik_2017/

Also available via WFS and WMS from PDOK:

• WFS: https://service.pdok.nl/cbs/bestandbodemgebruik/2017/wfs/v1_0
• WMS: https://service.pdok.nl/cbs/bestandbodemgebruik/2017/wms/v1_0

Schema — Field Meanings

Hierarchical Classification System

The BBG uses a hierarchical classification. The categorie field gives the broad group; bodemgebruik gives the specific type. The bg2017 numeric code uniquely identifies each type.

Main Categories and Land Use Types

Verkeersterrein (Traffic/Transportation)

• Spoorterrein — Railway area
• Wegverkeersterrein — Road traffic area
• Vliegveld — Airport

Bebouwd terrein (Built-up Area)

• Woonterrein — Residential area
• Detailhandel en horeca — Retail and hospitality
• Openbare voorziening — Public facilities
• Sociaal-culturele voorziening — Social-cultural facilities
• Bedrijfsterrein — Business/industrial area
• Stortplaats — Landfill/dump site
• Wrakkenopslagplaats — Vehicle scrapyard
• Begraafplaats — Cemetery
• Delfstofwinning — Mineral extraction
• Bouwterrein — Construction site
• Semi-bebouwd overig terrein — Semi-built-up other

Recreatieterrein (Recreation)

• Park en plantsoen — Park and public garden
• Sportterrein — Sports facility
• Volkstuin — Allotment garden
• Dagrecreatief terrein — Day recreation area
• Verblijfsrecreatief terrein — Overnight recreation area

Agrarisch terrein (Agricultural)

• Glastuinbouw — Greenhouse horticulture
• Overig agrarisch gebruik — Other agricultural use

Bos en open natuurlijk terrein (Forest and Open Nature)

• Bos — Forest
• Open droog natuurlijk terrein — Open dry natural area
• Open nat natuurlijk terrein — Open wet natural area

Binnenwater (Inland Water)

• IJsselmeer/Markermeer — IJsselmeer/Markermeer lake
• Afgesloten zeearm — Closed sea inlet
• Rijn en Maas — Rhine and Meuse rivers
• Randmeer — Border lake
• Spaarbekken — Reservoir
• Recreatief binnenwater — Recreational inland water
• Binnenwater voor delfstofwinning — Inland water for mineral extraction
• Vloei- en/of slibveld — Flow/sludge field
• Overig binnenwater — Other inland water

Buitenwater (Outer Water)

• Waddenzee, Eems, Dollard — Wadden Sea, Ems, Dollard
• Oosterschelde — Eastern Scheldt
• Westerschelde — Western Scheldt
• Noordzee — North Sea

Important Columns

• bg2017 — the numeric code; use this for joins and programmatic filtering
• bodemgebruik — the human-readable land use label; use for display and reports
• categorie — the higher-level category; useful for aggregation and summary statistics
• geom — MultiPolygon geometries covering the entire Netherlands

Geometry Notes

• CRS is EPSG:28992 (RD New / Amersfoort) — coordinates are in meters, NOT degrees. This is the Dutch national coordinate system.
• All geometries are MultiPolygon type
• The dataset covers the entire Netherlands including inland and coastal waters
• Minimum mapping unit is typically 1 hectare (10,000 m2) for most categories
• Boundaries are largely derived from the Top10NL/BRT topographic base map
• Bounding box in WGS84: [3.37, 50.73, 7.24, 53.55]
• To convert to WGS84 (lon/lat) for web mapping:

Useful Query Patterns

Count features by land use type

Total area per category (in hectares)

Since CRS is in meters, ST_Area(geom) gives m2 directly. Divide by 10,000 for hectares.

Find all forest areas

Find land use at a specific location (WGS84 coordinates)

Area breakdown for a specific municipality (using bbox filter)

Compare residential vs agricultural land

Load into GeoPandas

BBG vs NBBG — Methodology Change

Starting from reference year 2020, CBS switched to the NBBG (Nieuw Bestand Bodemgebruik). Key differences:

Do not combine BBG and NBBG data for time-series analysis without understanding the methodological break. CBS publishes bridging tables and documentation for this purpose.

Historical Context

CBS has been mapping Dutch land use since 1900. The BBG time series includes editions for: 1996, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2015, and 2017. Each edition used a similar methodology (manual photo interpretation over topographic base maps), making them broadly comparable for trend analysis.

Major trends visible in the BBG time series:

• Steady expansion of built-up area (residential, industrial)
• Decline in agricultural land
• Relatively stable forest coverage
• Growth of infrastructure (roads, railways)

Caveats

• EPSG:28992 coordinates: Coordinates are in meters (RD New), not degrees. Transform to WGS84 for web maps or combining with international data.
• Minimum mapping unit: Most land use types have a 1-hectare minimum. Smaller patches may be merged into surrounding land use types.
• Ground-level use only: The classification reflects use at ground level. A park under a viaduct is classified as recreation, not as infrastructure.
• Reference year: The data reflects the situation in 2017, based on aerial photos from summer 2017 and the topographic base map of that year.
• Not comparable with NBBG: The 2020+ NBBG uses a different methodology. Do not create time series spanning both BBG and NBBG without consulting CBS methodology documentation.
• Water areas: The dataset includes both inland and coastal waters (Wadden Sea, North Sea within Dutch territory), so total area exceeds the land area of the Netherlands.
• MultiPolygon geometries: All features are MultiPolygon, even when consisting of a single polygon.

Visualization Styles

Two Mapbox GL v8 styles are available for interactive map visualization via the PMTiles file.

Style files are Mapbox GL v8 JSON with relative PMTiles source paths. They can be used with MapLibre GL JS, OpenLayers (via ol-mapbox-style), or any Mapbox GL v8-compatible renderer.

• styles/default.json — Land use overview. Colors polygons by bodemgebruik (14 broad categories): green for agriculture, dark green for forest, gray for built areas, yellow for recreation, blue for water. Classic land use map of the Netherlands.
• styles/by-detailed-use.json — Detailed land use analysis. Colors by categorie (38 fine-grained classes): distinguishes between arable land, greenhouses, grassland, orchards, different forest types, residential vs. industrial vs. commercial areas, and specific water bodies (IJsselmeer, Rijn & Maas, etc.). Best for detailed land use studies and comparing specific sub-categories.

Style files are at: https://data.source.coop/cholmes/portolan-nl/cbs/bestand_bodemgebruik_2017/styles/

Also Available As

• GeoParquet: bbg2017.parquet (1.2 GB, 171,543 features, EPSG:28992)
• PMTiles: bbg2017.pmtiles (189 MB, for web map visualization)
• WFS: Live access via https://service.pdok.nl/cbs/bestandbodemgebruik/2017/wfs/v1_0 (feature type: bestandbodemgebruik:BBG2017)
• WMS: Map images via https://service.pdok.nl/cbs/bestandbodemgebruik/2017/wms/v1_0
• ATOM download: Bulk download from PDOK

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Hand-maintained agent guide (ported from this collection's llms.txt in August 2026). Update it alongside collection.json.