FAQ

The Atlas is an excellent starting point for local and regional authorities conducting a climate stress test. Furthermore, the Atlas is of relevance to, e.g., educational establishments, students, businesses, and residents. The Climate Impact Atlas is based on national data and can be used free of charge. With respect to climate effects, the Climate Impact Atlas is structured around five themes: flooding, waterlogging, drought, heat, and water quality. In addition to providing a first impression of how climate change may impact the Netherlands, now and in the future, the Atlas also comprises contextual maps, such as soil maps and maps providing a picture of potential adaptation opportunities.

The Viewer provides access to various maps that set out how climate change may impact your area, focusing on the themes of waterlogging, drought, heat, flooding, and water quality. The maps are subdivided into five categories: climate change, physical impacts, impacts, basic maps, and borders. Specific areas can be viewed by zooming in or by using the search function to search for a specific location.

The map layers are subdivided into five categories:

• Impacts: these maps show where spatial (climate) impacts are at play.
• Vulnerability: these maps show which groups and functions are more vulnerable to impacts.
• Opportunities for climate adaptation: these maps show where opportunities for climate adaptation may arise. In some maps the legend makes this immediately clear and in others you will find information about opportunities for adaptation in the accompanying map narrative.
• Area characteristics: these maps show relevant characteristics of areas for adaptation, for landscape, the built environment and green spaces.
• Borders: these maps show the borders of different governments and regions.

Some maps appear in multiple categories.

Would you like more information on a particular map? Then click on “More information” below the legend. For many maps, this will display the corresponding map narrative.

The map narratives provide an explanation to key maps. They explain what is shown on the maps and help you set to work with the information provided. In many cases, they also provide guidelines for potential solution strategies. Furthermore, the narratives set out how the maps have been developed. The map narratives are divided into six categories: Waterlogging, Heat, Drought, Flooding, Water Quality, and Basic Maps.

The map viewer shows the maps at the highest available level of detail. For some maps, such as the perceived temperature heat map, this involves a resolution of 2 metres. In the neighbourhood dashboard, the map data is translated to the neighbourhood level. The neighbourhood dashboard, as it were, provides a summary of the detailed information from the map viewer.

A major update of the neighbourhood dashboard is scheduled for early 2025, as the new Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) climate scenarios pertaining to several climate impacts are expected to be available by then.

Would you like to download the GIS data? Click on the “Retrieve data” tab to retrieve the GIS files. Retrieval is free of charge, as the files involve open data, provided by Geopackage/Geotiff. If you are using data from the Climate Impact Atlas, you must credit its source: “Climate Impact Atlas, 2025”. As the data is covered by the Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0), acknowledgement is mandatory.

The Climate Impact Atlas uses open data. This means that government authorities and businesses are free to use the information for new purposes, such as stress tests. Are you using data from the Climate Impact Atlas? In that case, you must credit its source: “Climate Impact Atlas, 2025”. As the data is covered by the Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0), acknowledgement is mandatory.

The maps contained in the Atlas are intended to visualise the scope of climate effects and to garner attention to the issue of climate adaptation. As the maps are based on national data, they do not warrant decision-making at the local level. Consequently, the research institutes involved, and the Climate Adaptation Services foundation disclaim any responsibility for the consequences of any assumptions based on texts or maps contained in the Climate Impact Atlas.

The Climate Impact Atlas was developed in 2007, when several provinces and research institutes felt the need to provide low-threshold access to national climate information. Since 2012, the Atlas has been managed by the Climate Adaptation Services (CAS) foundation. With effect from 2020, CAS has been performing this task under the auspices of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management. Among other things, this means that CAS will regularly update, expand, and enhance the Climate Impact Atlas.

The map narratives have been compiled by the research institutes that have developed the maps, in collaboration with the CAS foundation.

Would you like to keep abreast of updates in the Climate Impact Atlas? Then subscribe to the news flash! The news flash (in Dutch) will be emailed in the event of major developments, such as new maps or map narratives.

We cannot be sure as to exactly what our future climate will look like. In 2014, the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute KNMI developed four climate scenarios for the Netherlands, based on the global rise in temperature. The G scenarios feature a global temperature rise of 1 °C by 2050 and the W scenarios feature a rise of 2 °C, both vis-à-vis the current climate: 1981-2010. The GH and WH scenarios feature an additional change in air flow patterns, causing, e.g., summers to become drier.

Together, the scenarios represent the corner posts within which climate change is likely to develop. The Climate Impact Atlas reflects the two most widely differing scenarios. Across the board, the high scenario corresponds to the KNMI scenario WH, i.e., the worst-case scenario for most of the climate effects. The low scenario generally corresponds to the KNMI scenario GL, in which the changes remain most limited. If a scenario other than WH rates highest for a particular map, this will be stated in the Viewer. Conversely, the same is true for scenarios lower than GL. For each map layer, the Climate Impact Atlas only shows the available scenarios; the scenarios are not always all available.

In addition to climate change, some maps also feature assumptions regarding other relevant developments, e.g., socio-economic trends. If this is the case, the map will state so.

The KNMI'23 scenarios are now available. More information on these new scenarios is provided on the KNMI website. Over the next few years, we will work on developing new maps in the Climate Impact Atlas based on the new KNMI'23 scenarios.

With respect to the themes of drought, heat, and waterlogging, the Climate Impact Atlas presents a selection of consequences. This selection is not exhaustive and only intended as a starting point.