# Dutch Distribution Centres 2021 Geodata
The Geodataset includes 26.951 logistics buildings in the Netherlands, built before November 2021, as well as the business estates they are in, and the outline of the East-Southeast freight corridor of the Netherlands - the busiest logistics area of the country. The used definition of the logistics sector includes trade, import, export, wholesale, transportation, and warehousing activities. To avoid irrelevant buildings such as small, dedicated office buildings and electrical installations, only logistics buildings larger than 500 m2 were considered in the data collection. Additionally, 4.533 large buildings with retail centres on industrial sites were included, where consumers ‘pick their own orders’, such as construction materials stores. As well as 782 buildings with logistics co-activity, for example a hospital with a logistics entity for medical materials. Manufacturing and recycling facilities, which often include logistics activities, are not included unless a separate logistics company is registered in the building. Several of the analyses by the author are exclusively focused on XL (> 20.000 m2) and XXL DCs (>40.000 m2), used by traders and logistics service providers. Depending on the analysis, therefore, subsets of certain functions and size classes of DCs are used.
The dataset contains a Geopackage with equivalents in ESRI shapefile format. The buildings layer with attributes is also provided as a Geojson file and CSV data table (without geometry). Besides this README file, a method describing the compilation of the data is provided (Pdf).
An earlier version of this dataset, covering only the area within the East-Southeast corridor, was released in 2021 (DOI:10.4121/14791686). The new dataset substitutes the former.
An interactive zoomable map with timeline slider is available on: http://mertennefs.eu/landscapes-of-trade/
Some interactive metrics, showing the extent and potential of the dataset, are shown in this RShiny app: https://mertennefs.shinyapps.io/distributioncentres_geodata_app/
## Collaboration
The data were gathered and compiled by Merten Nefs, in collaboration with Thomas Bonte and Carlijn Ligterink (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam), Vera Loefs and Ana Luisa Moura (Deltametropolis Association); with the help and data provision by Frank van Oort (Erasmus School of Economics) and Hans van Amsterdam (Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, PBL). The data have been used for research, media articles and academic work such as the PhD research project Landscapes of Trade, by Merten Nefs, at TUDelft and Erasmus School of Economics. More information at www.landscapesoftrade.nl
## Disclaimer
The buildings were selected by and joined with employment data of Lisa 2020, and therefore reasons back in time from this point and assumes the same function as well for 2021. Discrepancies between earlier data (Lisa 2017) and 2020 can be viewed and filtered out via the 'Current' attribute below. Another important aspect is the overlap of logistics buildings over time: a small portion of these has replaced former buildings on the same site that have been demolished. Such 'brownfield' developments amount to ca. 10% of the dataset - as established by a test sample - whereas ca. 90% are 'greenfield' developments. More information on the data collection and compilation method is found in the accompanying pdf file.
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