Open models for spatial policy.

We build transparent spatial models and the software they run on, so governments, planning agencies, policy advisers and researchers can understand how land, people and infrastructure develop, explore what a policy choice would change, and decide on better evidence.

See our projects Explore GeoDMS
An exploded stack of map layers for one area: demography, infrastructure, land use and environment. Below the stack the model combines them into an allocation, in which new development appears against the edges of the existing towns.
01 / LAND USEWhere things can goThe RuimteScanner has supported Dutch national planning since 1997.02 / NETWORKSWhat is reachableTravel times and catchment areas over road and public transport networks.03 / POPULATIONWho lives whereDownscaling projections to a 1 km grid, worldwide, for the JRC and the UN.04 / SOCIAL DOMAINHousing and careWoonZorgWijzer maps where care and support are needed, street by street.05 / ENERGYHeating the built environmentMatching demand to local supply, neighbourhood by neighbourhood.06 / WEB MAPPINGResults people can useModel output as maps a policy adviser opens in a browser.

Our models run on GeoDMS, the open-source calculation platform we have developed since the 1990s. What we build is open source, reproducible and documented in public, because the value of a result lies not only in the answer, but also in the transparency of how it was reached.

That principle runs through our projects. At present much of our work centres on CRISP and the RuimteScanner. CRISP produced the spatial projections behind the United Nations' World Urbanization Prospects 2025; the RuimteScanner has supported Dutch national planning since 1997.

All our software is open source.
github.com/ObjectVision

Documentation for GeoDMS and the
models built on it:
geodms.nl

Who we work for and with

PBL Netherlands Environmental
Assessment Agencyland use, accessibility, energy, urbanisation
Joint Research Centre,
European CommissionLUISA, CRISP, network models
DeltaresRuimteScanner development, delta scenarios
United Nations
Population DivisionWorld Urbanization Prospects 2025
OECDrural accessibility, functional areas
TNOspatial modelling
Provinces and municipalitiesWoonZorgwijzer, 17 applications
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdamresearch, and our office
Care organisationsZorgcentra Rivierenland, Zinzia Zorggroep
In Fact, BaasGeo, Mapificationthe partners we build with
Bundesamt für Bauwesen
und RaumordnungLand Use Scanner Germany
Municipality of The HagueKansenVerkenner

Latest

18 November 2025CRISP behind the UN's World Urbanization Prospects 2025The United Nations published its urbanization outlook for 237 countries and more than 12,000 cities. The localised projections in it were produced with the CRISP model.27 October 2025The CRISP model described in fullThe Joint Research Centre published the methodological report behind CRISP, setting out how national population projections are downscaled to a global one-kilometre grid.3 July 2025WLO 2025, four futures for the Netherlands to 2060The scenario study that underpins Dutch cost-benefit analysis was renewed. Population between 18.2 and 21.9 million by 2060, and a very different country in each case.

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