About us
Object Vision develops software and spatial models that support decision making in complex environments. Our work combines analytical rigour with technical depth: we build tools that governments, researchers and organisations use to understand spatial dynamics and evaluate future scenarios.
Our team brings together spatial economics, data analysis, modelling and software engineering. That mix is what lets us turn scientific insight into tools that survive contact with real policy questions. Reliability, transparency and methodological quality are not features we add at the end; they decide how we design a system in the first place.
Our main product is GeoDMS: an open-source framework for spatial data management, fast grid calculations and reproducible modelling workflows. We publish our software as open source wherever we can, and we actively promote transparent modelling and the use of open data.
That position is not an idiosyncratic one. PBL sets out its own requirements for the models it uses: they must be scientifically sound, transparent about their assumptions and limitations, and open to review. We have built to that standard since long before it was written down, and it is steadily becoming the norm among the organisations we work for.
Thirty years of spatial modelling
1994, the Vrije Universiteit. The Faculty of Economics and Econometrics ran a research programme on spatial data, GIS and spatial modelling, bringing together a range of research and application projects. One of these was SimEurope, a European land-use model developed together with Geodan. In this environment, Maarten, then a PhD student, developed software libraries for network calculations, map algebra and accessibility modelling, while Martin worked on related projects at the same university in other fields.
More importantly, these projects laid the foundations for a way of working that would later become central to Object Vision: building general-purpose tools rather than one-off solutions, making models modular and reusable, and treating spatial modelling as something that should be transparent, explicit and computationally efficient. The software libraries developed during this period evolved into the foundation of what is now GeoDMS.
1996, adoption by the RIVM. The concept of land-use modelling was taken over by sector 5 of the RIVM, resulting also in the LUMOS consortium (Land Use MOdelling System). That RIVM sector later became the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency ('Milieu- en Natuur Planbureau'; MNP), which in turn merged with the Spatial Planning Agency ('Ruimtelijk Planbureau'; RPB) in 2008 to form today's PBL ('Planbureau voor de Leefomgeving'). Our longest client relationship therefore predates the client's own name by more than a decade.
1997 and 1999, the Land Use Scanner. The model went into operation for national policy analysis, first described by Schotten et al. (1997). Two years later Hilferink and Rietveld (1999) set out its formal foundation and raised the resolution from 500 to 100 metres. That paper introduced the logit approach to spatial allocation, borrowing discrete choice theory from transport modelling: where a transport model chooses a route, this model chooses a type of land use for a location.
1998-2005, the joint venture in Haarlem. A joint venture with the software company YUSE GSO, based in Haarlem, allowed the software to be extended with a larger team of experienced developers, and broadened the range of applications built on it.
2000, the WoonZorgZone and the WoonServiceWijk. At the beginning of this century, policy concepts such as the WoonZorgZone and the WoonServiceWijk gained momentum in the Netherlands. They emphasised the importance of collaboration between local government, care, housing and social services, supported by area-specific information, in order to better address the challenges posed by an ageing population. Since then our spatial information products have supported this collaboration in many municipalities and regions. In 2015 the decentralisation of responsibilities for healthcare and social support to municipalities provided an additional stimulus to this development.
2006, Object Vision B.V. and return to the Vrije Universiteit. We returned to the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, where our office is still based today. This was a deliberate choice: we wanted to focus more on applications of spatial modelling, working on real-world questions in areas such as land use, accessibility and environmental assessment. Returning to the university also allowed us to reconnect with academic research and collaboration.
It was in this context that our current company, Object Vision B.V., was established. GeoDMS continued to evolve as the platform for this work, with new vector operations, improved performance and increasing integration with web-based applications. The combination of scientific collaboration, applied modelling and continued development of a general-purpose modelling platform became a defining characteristic of Object Vision.
Europe and beyond. The EU-ClueScanner, built for DG Environment and the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, became the predecessor of LUISA, the Commission's territorial modelling platform for ex-ante assessment of policies with a spatial impact. The Bangladesh Delta Scanner has been used by Deltares and CEGIS in Dhaka since 2014 for land-use and water management scenarios, and a Land Use Scanner for Germany was developed with the Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning ('Bundesamt für Bauwesen und Raumordnung'; BBR).
2007 onwards, an audit and an economic turn. An international scientific audit (Timmermans et al., 2007) recommended tying the model logic more firmly to economic and policy logic. That led to an economic basis for suitability, where bid prices for land drive local suitability and financial instruments such as taxes and subsidies can be modelled explicitly.
2011, Nederland van Boven. For the VPRO television series Nederland van Boven we developed a travel-time matrix, containing the estimated travel time from every four-digit postcode area to every other four-digit postcode area. This marked the beginning of our work in accessibility modelling as a distinct field of expertise. The model we developed at the time still forms the foundation of our current network models.
2015, the first web mapping application. For Menzis we developed our first web mapping application, helping asylum seekers find a nearby contracted healthcare provider. This was the beginning of many web mapping applications, of which the WoonZorgwijzer is currently our most widely used.
New team members. In 2018 Jip joined, combining consultancy with a part-time PhD in spatial economics at the VU. In 2021 Erik joined, strengthening both software development and modelling capacity.
2021 onwards, RuimteScanner 2.0. The single land-use layer was split into three: actors, objects and land use. The model became open source as RSopen, and was first applied in the Planmonitor NOVI 2023 and the Ruimtelijke Verkenning 2023. It is now also used extensively by Deltares in their spatial modelling work.
Governance
In 2025 we changed how the company is governed. Object Vision B.V. continues to exist and to do the work it always did, but it is now wholly owned by Coöperatieve Vereniging Object Vision U.A. Control therefore sits with the cooperative rather than with individual shareholders, and its certificates are held by the professionals working in the company.
The practical effect is continuity. Decisions about direction are taken by the people who design, build and maintain the models, which keeps the company independent and its horizon long. For clients and partners nothing changes in what we do or how we work.