Arnold Bregt
Professor
Wageningen University
Netherland

Biography
Arnold K Bregt is professor of Geo-information Science at the Wageningen University in The Netherlands. Following more than 25 years of experience in the field of geo-information science research and applications, his current areas of interest are spatial data infrastructures, human-space interactions and spatial thinking. He is (co-)author of about 300 publications and holds a MSc and a PhD degree from the Wageningen University

Abstract
Open Dutch Topographic Basemap: What are the Effects?

Co-Authors:
Lukasz Grus, Dr. ir., Wageningen University
Dick Eertink, Kadaster

Since 2012 the Dutch topographic base map is available as open data. From that moment the government but also citizens and companies can use this data for their purposes without restrictions. It has been expected that this step would affect the use of the topographic base map considerably. In this research an assessment framework was developed and applied to evaluate what the effects of open topographic base map are. The assessment focused on the internal effects (within the National Mapping Agency), relation effects (interaction between society and the agency) and external effects (within the society). Also the economic effects were estimated. The assessment used measurements from 2011 (before opening the base map), and from two consecutive years (2012 and 2013) when the base map was used as open data. The assessment results show that the percentage of the business and private users and intensity of the use of the topographic base map increased substantially. This pattern can be explained by largely decreased costs of data acquisition and no use restrictions by the potential users. It has also been observed that the number of members of the users community and their activity increased largely. It is also evident that companies engage in this open data movement and start using the topographic base map to provide value-added products and services. The companies have invested between 11,5 and 14,5 million euro in the development of services and products based on open topographic data. For the Dutch National Mapping Agency however it is now more difficult to keep track on how their product is being used.