P.C. Popp published the cadastral plans and registers of 1 733 municipalities as part of the Atlas of Belgium. This unique publication is a gold mine for historical geography, industrial archaeology, social history, local history, toponymy and other areas of research. To date, historians and scientists have still not sufficiently exploited the cadastre because of the complexity and scale of the archive. The POPPKAD project was created to open up the cadastre for scientific research. As part of this project, the data on the plans and registers of a number of representative municipalities were fully digitised and linked to Geographic Information Systems. The localities were selected based on their location, size and socio-economic profile.

Bruges, an important administrative center in 1862 with more than 47 000 inhabitants and 8 267 houses, experienced limited growth in the 19th century. In comparison with other cities, the economy developed slowly and new industries were largely absent. There were high levels of poverty and illiteracy in the population. In the mid-19th century, Bruges was even known as the poorest city in Belgium.