Data

The data underlying this service is extracted from Basisregisters, UrbIS-Adm and POI. It is updated once a day.

The data for the region of Brussels contains both the Dutch and French notation of addresses.

High-level use cases

Suggestion

Suggestion allows client applications to provide auto-completion functionality for a free form single search line. Input can be either partial address information or partial poi name.

• Find addresses starting with ‘Veld’
• Find addresses containing ‘Veld’
• Find poi names starting with ‘Mol’

SuggestionResult

Contains a list of items resembling the input string. The list may contain between zero and n items, where n is the maximum number of items indicated in your request or otherwise the default of 5.

Example

Location

Geocoding is the process of matching an address to its correct location on a map. Client applications can pass free form single search line with partial address information or one of the results of the suggestion resource. Result is either a single record exactly matching the input or a set of records ranked by relevance when the input is ambiguous.

• Find geo-location based on (partial) address information (e.g. ‘Veldstraat 12, Gent’)
• Find geo-location based on (partial) address information including zip code (e.g. ‘Veldstraat 12, 9000’)
• Find geo-location based on (partial) address information including sub-community area name (e.g. ‘Heerweg-Zuid 50, Zwijnaarde’)
• Find geo-location based on (partial) poi name (e.g. ‘De Pagadder’)

The reverse geocoding interface allows client applications to retrieve the closest address based on a given coordinate. If no address is found within 1.000 m of the provided coordinate, nothing is returned.

• Find address closest to a certain Lambert-72 coordinate (e.g. ‘106315.821, 188056.158’)
• Find address closest to a certain WGS-84 coordinate (e.g. ‘51.006761, 3.717241’)

LocationResult

Contains a list of geo-locations. The list may contain between zero and n items, where n is the maximum number of items indicated in your request or otherwise the default of 1.

• FormattedAddress
  May contain a community name, a street name, a formatted address line or a poi name.
• ID (from v3 onward)
  The id of the most distinctive address component.
• Municipality (from v4 onward)
  The municipality name component of the formatted address.
• Zipcode (from v4 onward)
  The zipcode component of the formatted address.
• Thoroughfarename (from v4 onward)
  The thoroughfarename component of the formatted address.
• Housenumber (from v4 onward)
  The housenumber component of the formatted address.
• Location
  Contains the WGS84 coordinates (epsg 4326) and the Belgian Lambert-72 coordinates (epsg 31370) of the geo-location.
• LocationType
  Holds an indication of the geocoding accuracy. Possible values are:
  • basisregisters_gemeente
  • urbis_gemeente
  • basisregisters_straat
  • urbis_straat
  • basisregisters_aangeduidDoorBeheerder
  • basisregisters_afgeleidVanObject
  • basisregisters_geïnterpoleerd
  • urbis_huisnummer
  • perceel
  • poi_{poiType}
• BoundingBox
  Contains the coordinates of the lower left and the upper right corners of the smallest rectangle containing the locations geometry. The coordinates are provided both in WGS84 and Lambert-72 projection.

example

Versions

If no specific version is indicated then the latest version is the default.

V1

Version 1 provides a Suggestion and a Location resource as described above.

V2

Version 2 has the exact same interface as version 1, but adds the zip code to the SuggestionResult and to the FormattedAddress within the LocationResult for location types 'basisregisters_huisnummer' and 'urbis_huisnummer'. Keep in mind that no zip code is added for location types 'basisregisters_straat', 'urbis_straat', 'basisregisters_gemeente' or 'urbis_gemeente'.

V3

Version 3 returns within the LocationResult not only a FormattedAddress but also an ID that can be used for further lookups. Where the ID points to depends on the LocationType.
Mind you that this version no longer supports parcel search. Please refer to https://geo.api.vlaanderen.be/geolocation/perceel for parcel search.

V4

Version 4 adds more information to the location responses, i.e. an explicit listing of the individual address components municipality, zipcode, thoroughfarename and housenumber. Furthermore the resultset can now be filtered to include only municipalities, thoroughfarenames or full addresses.
Mind you that this version no longer supports poi search. Please refer to poi.api.geopunt.be for poi search.

Cross-domain requests

The service supports JSON-P. Add the query parameter 'callback' to the url and set the Accept header to 'application/javascript'.

CORS is not supported.