Welcome to the BAG: The Dutch Building and Addresses database - Bert Hubert's writings
a day ago
- The BAG (Basic Registration of Addresses and Buildings) is the Dutch national database containing detailed records of buildings, dwellings, and addresses, including precise coordinates and shapes.
- The database is publicly accessible and free, but official downloads are limited to expensive third-party options, incomplete GIS dumps, or 83GB of complex XML files.
- A new open-source tool called 'bagconv' converts the BAG XML into an SQLite database, handling tricky semantics like addresses belonging to different cities than their streets, and includes simplified SQLite views for easier queries.
- Pre-built CSV files (pcodes.csv) and SQLite databases are provided monthly, offering fields like street name, house number, postal code, area, usage, and construction year, with geographic coordinates in Dutch and global systems.
- A web service (bagserv) allows querying BAG data by address or coordinates, returning JSON output, and is hosted live at berthub.eu/pcode for testing.