GIS LANGDORP 1861
Cadastre of the municipality of Langdorp
Over the course of the 19th century, P.C. Popp published the cadastral plans and registers of numerous municipalities in Belgium. The maps show buildings, plots, roads, waterways and other landscape elements in unprecedented detail. Used in combination with the property descriptions, they constitute an important source for diverse research topics. The cadastre of Langdorp published by Popp was fully digitised and converted into a Geographic Information System as part of the POPPKAD project.
Information sheet
Title: GIS of the municipality of Langdorp
Author: Ghent University with the exception of specific sub-collections
Population/Subject: Geographic Information System
Region: Flemish Brabant, Belgium
Period: 1861
Number of units: 4 463 plots
Number of variables: 23
Formaat: CSV, XLS, SHP
Accessibility: Can be consulted under the general terms and conditions of use of the Quetelet Center and with the agreement of the authors, with the exception of the base maps (shapefiles) which are not accessible.
Context of the database
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.
Langdorp is located in the Campine area and around 1861 it was a relatively large municipality with more than 2 200 inhabitants, 442 houses and 4 463 plots. The landscape was dominated by arable land, heathland and hayfields. A significant portion of the land was owned by the local population. Agriculture was the main source of income.
POPPKAD was funded by the Hercules Foundation and Ghent University.
What data can you find in this database?
The database brings together the following information per plot and landowner:
- Type of plot (arable land , pasture, forest, etc.)
- Type of building (dwelling, barn, industrial building, etc.)
- Area of the property
- Cadastral class and income of the property
- Name of the owner
- Occupation of the owner
- Residence of the owner
The plot maps (scales 1: 5 000 and 1: 2 500) were fully vectorised and geo-referenced.
The database data are stored in various formats (CSV, SHP and XLS).
How can you consult data from the database?
The database, which was constructed in collaboration with Dr. Wouter Ronsijn, is managed by the Quetelet Center. Access to the database is subject to particular conditions. The information in the database described above is available for scientific research after approval of an application. Because of copyright and complexity issues, the base maps are not available in vectorised form (shapefiles). Customised maps can be constructed by the staff at the center and made available in JPG or PDF format on request. Interested parties can contact the staff at the center (eric.vanhaute@ugent.be or sven.vrielinck@ugent.be).
Publications based on GIS LANGDORP
- Vrielinck, Sven. Grootse plannen: de kadastrale atlas van P.C. Popp: genese en datering (1840-1880). Amsterdam University Press, 2018.
- Ronsijn, Wouter. De kadasterkaarten van Popp: een sleutel tot uw lokale geschiedenis. Historische geografie van Aarschot, Asse, Halle en Tienen aan de hand van de kadasterkaarten van Popp. Peeters, 2007.