This page is filled to the brim with the best places to find open-source intelligence in the Netherlands.
Every company must be registered at the Netherlands Chamber of Commerce (🇳🇱 de Kamer van Koophandel, aka KVK). Every company must enter its address and contact details here. These records can be bought from the KVK.
https://www.kvk.nl/producten-bestellen/bedrijfsproducten-bestellen/uittreksels/
If you prefer not to pay for the KVK extract, OpenKVK is a free and open-source alternative. This database, which mirrors the KVK extract, puts the power of information in your hands.
Every healthcare professional needs to be registered in the BIG register. This register, maintained by the Dutch government, is a crucial resource for verifying the credentials of healthcare professionals. It can be searched by name or by BIG number.
The registry provides the following information:
- Initials
- Last name
- Gender
- BIG number
- Profession
- Specialism
The Dutch government's Wettenbank website is a treasure trove of all laws and regulations, easily searchable and comprehensive, ensuring you stay well-informed.
Some of the most interesting laws are:
- Wet open overheid (woo) - The Dutch freedom of information act
- Regeling kentekens en kentekenplaten - The law describing the Dutch license plate system
- Regeling algemene regels ruimtelijke ordening - a law indicating dangerous areas in the Netherlands like military installations
The decisions of the Dutch courts are published on the Rechtspraak.nl website.
The national and local governments have to announce things like new laws, the acceptance of permits, changes in zoning plans, and many other things. These announcements are published on the Officiële bekendmakingen website.
The website is a replacement for the 🇳🇱 Staatscourant and 🇳🇱 Gemeenteblad.
https://www.officielebekendmakingen.nl/
These announcements include but are not limited to:
- Permits for building projects
- Permits for events
- Changes in zoning plans
- Changes in the law
- New people in government positions
- Alcohol licenses
- and many more
The bag registry, which contains every building in the Netherlands, is a key resource for urban planning, property research, and infrastructure development. It is the authoritative source from the government.
Every building known to the government has the following information:
- Address
- Size in m^2
- Build date
- Function (like residential or industrial building)
https://bagviewer.kadaster.nl/lvbag/bag-viewer/
The PDOK viewer contains many geo datasets like an elevation map (ANH 3), land use, drone no-fly zones, and many others.
The Dutch Cadaster (🇳🇱 Het Kadaster) is the government agency that keeps track of all land in the Netherlands. They have a website where you can look up old maps of the Netherlands. The maps are from 1815 to 2007.
The RAF took many photos of the Netherlands. The Wageningen University cataloged these and made them available.
https://library.wur.nl/WebQuery/geoportal/raf
TNO and the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations (🇳🇱 Ministerie van Binnenlandse Zaken en Koninkrijksrelaties) have a soil survey database is a comprehensive resource, providing detailed reports on the ground makeup, the pressure it can hold, and the water table height, ensuring your projects are on solid ground.
In these reports, you can find:
- The makeup of the ground
- The pressure it can hold
- The height of the water table
They call it the DINO-database which might be a backronym.
The Air Traffic Control in the Netherlands (🇳🇱 Luchtverkeersleiding Nederland aka LVNL) publishes a lot of information about airports in the Netherlands.
This includes an overview map of Dutch airspace: https://vfrchart.lvnl.nl/
Detailed maps of all airports in the Netherlands in the eAIP system: https://en.lvnl.nl/information-for-airmen/publications-for-airmen
on this page, click on the AIP Link, and from there, on the left side in Part 3 AERODROMES (AD) you will find either AD 2 AERODROMES for airports or AD 3 HELIPORTS for heliports.
Here you can find detailed information about the airport. Everything from contact information and airport facilities to detailed maps of the airport.
With the charts located at AD 2.24 <ICAO code> CHARTS RELATED TO AN AERODROME, with the most interesting charts being
Aerodrome chart- an overview of the airportAircraft parking/docking chart- an overview of all the parking spaces at the airport
The LVNL publishes a map with all the no-fly zones for drones in the Netherlands. This map shows no-fly zones and zones where you are limited in flying.
LiveATC is a website that streams air traffic control communications from all over the world. There are many streams from the Netherlands.
Amsterdam Schiphol Airport (ICAO: EHAM) is the most popular stream in the Netherlands. It can be found at https://www.liveatc.net/search/?icao=eham.
However, many other airports in the Netherlands are also streamed. You can find over at Google
The Directorate General for Public Works and Water Management (🇳🇱 Rijkswaterstaat) publishes a lot of information about traffic in the Netherlands.
Besides the usual traffic jams, they publish information about roadworks, accidents, and other things that can cause delays.
The site also has a map with all the traffic cameras Rijkswaterstaat has.
https://www.rwsverkeersinfo.nl/
The Netherlands Vehicle Authority (🇳🇱 Rijksdienst voor het Wegverkeer) has a database with all Dutch cars in which you can look up any Dutch license plate.
This site reports:
- The make and model
- The color
- Information about the motor, like the power, cylinder capacity, and the emissions
- Data about when mandatory maintenance was done (🇬🇧 MOT (🇳🇱 APK)) was last done
- If there are any recalls on the car
- And an estimated price and Vehicle registration tax (🇳🇱 BPM)
In the Netherlands, we have real-time traffic management through electronic signs above the road. The Rijkswaterstaat controls these signs and can limit the speed, close lanes, and give other information. You can read more about matrix signs this Dutch Wikipedia page.
MXbord.nl is a website that shows all the signs in the Netherlands.
The sources for the information are available at https://mxbord.nl/bronnen and mainly point to https://opendata.ndw.nu/
The national road database (🇳🇱 Nationaal Wegenbestand) contains all the roads in the Netherlands. It is a dataset with all the roads, including the road number, the type of road, and the location. But the most important information is the owner of the road (🇳🇱 Wegbeheerders. From this, you can determine if a road is publicly or privately owned.
https://www.nationaalwegenbestand.nl/ main site of the dataset https://www.pdok.nl/introductie/-/article/nationaal-wegen-bestand-nwb-wegen a handy viewer of the dataset
Funda is the biggest real estate platform in the Netherlands. It has a lot of information about houses and other buildings in the Netherlands, including price, size, location, layout, and interior photos.
The Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (🇳🇱 Koninklijk Nederlands Meteorologisch Instituut) is the Dutch weather service. They publish a lot of information about the weather in the Netherlands.
Here are some of the most interesting pages:
The forecast for the next few days: https://www.knmi.nl/nederland-nu/weer/verwachtingen
Extended forecast: https://www.knmi.nl/nederland-nu/weer/waarschuwingen-en-verwachtingen/weer-en-klimaatpluim
The current measurements: https://www.knmi.nl/nederland-nu/weer/waarnemingen
Weather warnings: https://www.knmi.nl/nederland-nu/weer/waarschuwingen/utrecht
If you need to look back at the weather on a specific day, you can use the Daggegevens van het weer in Nederland. Here, you can look at the weather data from the KNMI from 1901 to now.
The KNMI is also the government agency responsible for tracking earthquakes in the Netherlands. They have a page for that too: https://www.knmi.nl/nederland-nu/seismologie/aardbevingen
Then, something for the nerds:
Guidance modelbeoordeling (🇬🇧 Guidance and model evaluation) and Guidance meerdaagse (🇬🇧 Guidance for the extended forecast) on these pages a meteorologist will explain what the weather models try to say and how much they trust the models.
If you love listening to the shipping forecast, you are in luck. The KNMI has a page for that too Scheepvaartbericht and a similar page for internal waters Marifoonbericht
If you are an aviator then you might be interested in the (AUTO) METAR and TAF reports for the dutch airports. and a special weather report for smaller aircraft Weerbulletin kleine luchtvaart.
Buienradar (🇬🇧 literally shower radar) is a popular weather website in the Netherlands. It focuses on predicting rain but also provides general weather services.
P2000 is like a police scanner but only in text and is freely available. Many sites display information about emergency service calls.
https://alarmeringen.nl/ http://www.p2000-online.net/
Delpher is an extensive newspaper archive. It collected many big and small newspapers from 1618 to 1995. They are freely readable and fully searchable.
WebSDR is a software-defined radio receiver that can be accessed over the internet. It can be used to listen to radio signals from all over the world.
There are many WebSDR stations in the Netherlands, which can be found on the http://websdr.org/ website.
The most popular WebSDR station in the Netherlands is the one in Twente. It can be found at http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/.