Activity Dimension

The LBCS activity dimension — every code from 1000 to 9999 for what physically takes place on a parcel, with the full APA category descriptions.

An observable characteristic of land based on actual use.

The activity dimension classifies what actually happens on the land in physical, observable terms — farming, shopping, manufacturing, vehicular movement, and so on. It answers the question "if you stood on this parcel, what would you see going on?"

Activity is deliberately blind to who occupies the land or why. An office activity code applies equally to a law firm, a nonprofit, a courthouse, and a corporate headquarters, because the on-premises activity is the same in each case. Likewise, residential activity covers dwelling in a single-family house, an apartment tower, or a manufactured home — the building type is recorded separately in the structure dimension, and the type of establishment in the function dimension.

This separation is what makes the dimension useful for field survey and for imagery- or observation-based data collection: an activity code can be assigned by looking at a site, without knowing anything about its tenant, its owner, or its tax status.

Top-level categories

Every code in this dimension descends from one of these nine one-digit categories.

Code	Category
`1000`	Residential activities
`2000`	Shopping, business, or trade activities
`3000`	Industrial, manufacturing, and waste-related activities
`4000`	Social, institutional, or infrastructure-related activities
`5000`	Travel or movement activities
`6000`	Mass assembly of people
`7000`	Leisure activities
`8000`	Natural resources-related activities
`9000`	No human activity or unclassifiable activity

How to read the code tables

The tables below list all 115 codes in the activity dimension, one section per top-level category. Indentation shows the hierarchy: a 1100 code is a subcategory of 1000, an 1110 code a subcategory of 1100, and an 1111 code a subcategory of 1110. Trailing zeros mark the level, so the number of significant digits tells you the depth of any code without looking it up.

A dash in the description column means the standard publishes the category name without an accompanying note.

1000 Residential activities

Code	Category	Description
`1000`	Residential activities	Includes activities that occur in all types of residential uses, structures, ownership characteristics, or the character of the development.
`1100`	Household activities	Includes those activities normally associated with single-family, multifamily, town homes, manufactured homes, etc.
`1200`	Transient living	Activities associated with hotels, motels, tourist homes, bed and breakfast, etc. Note that the distinction between various residential activities is independent of the definition of a family.
`1300`	Institutional living	Residential living activity associated with dormitories, group homes, barracks, retirement homes, etc. These activities may occur in any number of structural types (single-family homes, multi-family homes, manufactured homes, etc.), but the activity characteristics of such living is not the same as the other subcategories under residential activities. Also note that the distinction between various residential activities is independent of the definition of a family.

2000 Shopping, business, or trade activities

Code	Category	Description
`2000`	Shopping, business, or trade activities	This category captures all uses that are business related. Use it as a catch-all category for all retail, office, commercial, and industrial activities when the subcategories are either too specific or otherwise unknown (as in comprehensive plan designations).
`2100`	Shopping	Primarily for all retail shops and stores. If the shop sells both goods and services, or if it is not clear which of the two more detailed categories to assign, then use this one. Increasingly, distinguishing between a store (that sells goods) and shop (that sells service) will become difficult and for many planning-related applications even irrelevant. Even economic applications that employed such distinctions are reconsidering because of the difficulty in distinguishing between goods and services. However, for those planning applications that require this distinction, or for existing land-use data sets that already employ such distinctions, apply the subcategories. Otherwise, for routine land-use data classification, apply the Shopping category only.
`2110`	Goods-oriented shopping	Activities in stores that trade retail goods. The distinction is in the physical attributes of activities associated with goods (buying, selling, repairing, etc.) and not the type of goods.
`2120`	Service-oriented shopping	Those shops that primarily sell services on site. The distinction is in the physical attributes of activities associated with services, such as hairdressing. Business services, such as accounting, legal services, advertising, etc., belong in the office category.
`2200`	Restaurant-type activity	Eating, dining, and such activities associated with restaurants and other establishments that serve food, drink, and related products to be consumed on or off premises.
`2210`	Restaurant-type activity with drive-through	Eating, dining, and such activities associated with restaurants and other establishments that serve food, drink, and related products that may have seating but has drive-through facilities. Such activities, although commonly associated with fast-food restaurants, may also occur at restaurants and food establishments that do not serve fast food.
`2300`	Office activities	Typical office uses should be categorized here including those that are primarily office-use in character. Use this category as a catch-all designation for all office-type uses.
`2310`	Office activities with high turnover of people	Especially those that have counters for customer service, or waiting areas for customers or visitors. Use this category to indicate an activity characterized by a steady stream of people when such activity is part of normal operations of the office use.
`2320`	Office activities with high turnover of automobiles	Typically associated with drive-through windows at banks, department of motor vehicles, and other businesses. Traditionally, these activities were associated with banks, post offices, and financial institutions, but they may also occur at other kinds of establishments.

Code	Category	Description
`3000`	Industrial, manufacturing, and waste-related activities	All manufacturing, assembly, warehouse, and waste management activities. Use this as a catch-all category for anything not specified in subcategories below.
`3100`	Plant, factory, or heavy goods storage or handling activities	All industrial activities. Use this as a catch-all category for anything not specified in subcategories below.
`3110`	Primarily plant or factory-type activities	Assembly plants, manufacturing facilities, industrial machinery, etc.
`3120`	Primarily goods storage or handling activities	Characterized by loading and unloading goods at warehouses, large storage structures, movement of goods, shipping, and trucking. Includes self-storage activities.
`3200`	Solid waste management activities	Includes storing, collecting, dumping, waste processing, and other related operations.
`3210`	Solid waste collection and storage	Solid waste activities at source or intermediate locations, such as recycling centers. Use this category for large sites that have their own recycling areas where solid waste is separated or pretreated. Solid waste includes demolition waste, street sweepings, sewage sludge, industrial solids and sludges, agricultural manure, and crop wastes. The term garbage refers to food waste portion of solid waste and refuse or trash refer to mixed solid wastes. This category also includes activities associated with recycling (or refuse reclamation) and other related operations with landfilling.
`3220`	Landfilling or dumping	Activities that typically occur at landfills and resource recovery facilities. Also useful to mark those areas not necessarily identified as landfills, but used as dumps. The term sanitary landfill is sometimes used to differentiate public landfills from others.
`3230`	Waste processing or recycling	Activities normally associated with incinerators, recycling facilities, resource recovery facilities, etc.
`3300`	Construction activities (grading, digging, etc.)	During the construction stage of a development, especially if it is a large-scale one and is a multiyear project, the characteristics of the use is quite different from what it may eventually become. When local plans need to track such activities, use this category. Once completed, the activity code should reflect its actual use.

Code	Category	Description
`4000`	Social, institutional, or infrastructure-related activities	Use this category for all institutional activities. This broad category may also be used for land-use designations in comprehensive and general plans.
`4100`	School or library activities	Mainly those associated with educational, instructional, or teaching activities. Administrative functions, especially those where school board or administrative offices are located, should be assigned office categories. Likewise, sports, school-bus parking, or maintenance activities should be assigned appropriate categories. But if the data being classified is generalizing over large areas, then use this category.
`4110`	Classroom-type activities	Those that occur in school buildings, lecture rooms, etc. This category may include other related activities only if the data is being generalized and the predominant activities are classroom-type instructions.
`4120`	Training or instructional activities outside classrooms	Driving, flying, or other instructional activities that occur outside a typical school building.
`4130`	Other instructional activities including those that occur in libraries	Include all other instructional activities here.
`4200`	Emergency response or public-safety-related activities	Broad category to group all fire, police, rescue, EMS, and other public safety activities. Use this category for joint or co-located facilities if the application needs a single activity code.
`4210`	Fire and rescue-related activities	The classic example is a fire station with fire trucks in standard bays with associated training, resting, office, and equipment storing activities on the site. Use this category for sites that do not necessarily look like a fire station, but serve the same purpose (e.g., on-site fire and rescue stations for large-scale developments).
`4220`	Police, security, and protection-related activities	Policing and police-related activities that typically occur in a police station. It also includes community policing centers located in neighborhoods, which may occupy store-front locations.
`4230`	Emergency or disaster-response-related activities	Many look like a typical office building but are distinct in the operations in them. Often they have the 911 emergency center, disaster coordination facilities, and essential communication facilities for disaster recovery and response. Note that this category is not for coding schools and other community facilities used in disaster recovery operations.
`4300`	Activities associated with utilities (water, sewer, power, etc.)	Group all utilities: water, sewer, power, gas, etc.
`4310`	Water-supply-related activities	Category for water supply-related, including irrigation-related activities. Use this category for any activity associated with water supply.
`4311`	Water storing, pumping, or piping	Activities primarily associated with linear features, such as pipelines, water channels, etc., located in easements and point features, such as air vents, pumping stations, piping junctions, etc., that may or may not be located in easements.
`4312`	Water purification and filtration activities	Associated with large-scale plants, many of which appear industrial in character. This category should also include all the related activities associated with a water purification and filtration facility, such as water storage, water pumping, etc.
`4313`	Irrigation water storage and distribution activities	This category includes activities associated with urban and rural water distribution systems. Although not as common as the water purification plants, these activities are commonly associated with wells and reservoirs for water supply.
`4314`	Flood control, dams, and other large irrigation activities	Associated with dams, reservoirs, and other large-scale storage and distribution of water. Primarily industrial in character, many such sites also host other activities, such as sightseeing, power generation, leisure activities, environmental monitoring, etc.
`4320`	Sewer-related control, monitor, or distribution activities	This activity is characterized by sewer-related activities, such as pumping, piping, storing, treating, filtering, etc., whether urban or rural, private or public. Use this category for any activity associated with sewers.
`4321`	Sewage storing, pumping, or piping	Activities primarily associated with linear features, such as pipelines, channels, etc., located in easements and point features, such as air vents, pumping stations, piping junctions, etc., that may or may not be in easements.
`4322`	Sewer treatment and processing	Associated with sewer treatment plants, many of which appear industrial in character. This category also includes related activities associated with a sewer treatment and processing facility, such as storage, pumping, etc.
`4330`	Power generation, control, monitor, or distribution activities	This activity is characterized by electrical power generation, control facilities, distribution centers, etc. Use this category for any activity associated with power supply and distribution.
`4331`	Power transmission lines or control activities	Activities primarily associated with linear features, such as transmission lines, conduits, etc., located in easements and point features, such as air vents, pumping stations, piping junctions, etc., that may or may not be in easements.
`4332`	Power generation, storage, or processing activities	Activities primarily associated with switching centers, transformer locations, and other power-related facilities that serve as storage or transit points in the distribution system.
`4340`	Telecommunications-related control, monitor, or distribution activities	Activities associated with telecommunications encompass communication tower facilities, antennae locations, repeater stations, and distribution centers.
`4350`	Natural gas or fuels-related control, monitor, or distribution activities	Activities associated with natural gas encompass production facilities, distribution lines, and control and monitor stations.
`4400`	Mass storage, inactive	Activities associated with large storage areas for water, fuels, waste, and other products where such storage is not associated with utilities. These facilities may be associated with a private or public establishment to serve functions not associated with utilities.
`4410`	Water storage	Not related to utilities, but may be related to an industrial or commercial enterprise. This may include tanks, tank farms, open storage, etc., above or below ground.
`4420`	Storage of natural gas, fuels, etc.	Not related to utilities, but may be related to an industrial or commercial enterprise. This may include tanks, tank farms, open storage, etc., above or below ground.
`4430`	Storage of chemical, nuclear, or other materials	Not related to utilities, but may be related to an industrial or commercial enterprise. This may include tanks, tank farms, open storage, etc., above or below ground.
`4500`	Health care, medical, or treatment activities	Activities in this category encompass those associated with clinics, hospitals, and other facilities that treat, house, or care for patients.
`4600`	Interment, cremation, or grave digging activities	This category encompasses activities associated with cemeteries, cremation facilities, funeral homes, and the like.
`4700`	Military base activities	Military bases are typically complex collection of activities that include a wide range of activities associated with military training, living and recreational facilities for military personnel, storage and maintenance facilities, and other related facilities.
`4710`	Ordnance storage	Activities primarily associated with storing and moving of military ordnance.
`4720`	Range and test activities	These activities encompass large areas for range and test activities of arms, ammunitions, war games, and related military activities. Although such activities are part of a military base, identifying this special category is useful for planning around bases for land-use compatibility.

5000 Travel or movement activities

Code	Category	Description
`5000`	Travel or movement activities	This category encompasses activities associated with all modes of transportation. It includes rights-of-way and such linear features associated with transportation.
`5100`	Pedestrian movement	Use this category for classifying pedestrian-only roads and open mall areas in road rights-of-way. Although comprehensive plans may not depend on such distinctions, many site plans and urban designs use them for circulation components of their plans.
`5200`	Vehicular movement	This is a catch-all category for all forms of automobile movement on roads, parking areas, drive-through facilities, etc. Use the subcategories to further distinguish them.
`5210`	Vehicular parking, storage, etc.	Activities associated with parking or storing of automobiles.
`5220`	Drive-in, drive through, stop-n-go, etc.	Activities associated with serving customers in their automobiles from a fixed location, such as a drive-through window. Assign this code to those uses that have drive-through window facilities. This also includes activities associatd with car washes and such where the customers drive through specialized facilities.
`5400`	Trains or other rail movement	Includes activities associated with movement of rails and other vehicles on railroads. It includes activities associated with rail maintenance, storage, and rights-of-way for railroads.
`5410`	Rail maintenance, storage, or related activities	Use this category for identifying rail maintenance and storage activities, which are industrial in character, from rail movement and railroad rights-of-way. This category also includes railroad switching activities.
`5500`	Sailing, boating, and other port, marine and water-based activities	This category includes activities associated with water and marine based travel, movement, and their related activities. Use the subcategories to distinguish areas of marine movement from marine storage activities.
`5510`	Boat mooring, docking, or servicing	Use this subcategory for activities associated with docks and marinas where boats and ships are anchored, moored, or serviced.
`5520`	Port, ship-building, and related activities	These activities include a complex collection of shipping, storing, repairing and other similar activities that are industrial in nature. Passenger terminals are not included in this category.
`5600`	Aircraft takeoff, landing, taxiing, and parking	These activities encompass all aspects of air travel and transportation that occur at ground facilities, such as airports, hangars, and similar facilities. Passenger terminals are not included in this category.
`5700`	Spacecraft launching and related activities	These activities include space vehicle control, storage, movement, and viewing areas. Although they appear similar to air transportation facilities, spacecraft related activities entail several other activities.

6000 Mass assembly of people

Code	Category	Description
`6000`	Mass assembly of people	This is a catch-all category for activities associated with mass assembly of people for either transportation, spectator sports, entertainment, or other social and institutional reasons. Use the subcategories to further classify the type of mass assembly.
`6100`	Passenger assembly	This category is for activities primarily associated with bus, train, and airport terminals.
`6200`	Spectator sports assembly	Spectator sports assembly may occur in stadiums, open grounds, or other venues occasionally used for such purposes. Identifying such activities may be required for public safety related applications.
`6300`	Movies, concerts, or entertainment shows	Besides performance viewing, this category also includes related activities associated with such performances: food and souvenir vending, purchasing tickets, and related activities. This category also includes mass assembly at theaters and planetariums.
`6400`	Gatherings at fairs and exhibitions	Mass assembly of people at fairs and exhibitions includes activities associated with food and souvenir vending, purchasing tickets, and related activities. This category also includes activities associated with entertainment shows, park rides, etc., at fairs.
`6500`	Mass training, drills, etc.	Includes activities in parade grounds and drill fields associated with institutions.
`6600`	Social, cultural, or religious assembly	Use this category for mass assembly of people for social (eg., city hall), cultural (eg., parades), or religious (eg. churches) purposes. It also includes large outdoor ceremonies for religious, cultural, or other purposes. Although such activities may occur infrequently and may not involve any functional or structural characteristics (for example a spontaneous gathering that occurs on an annual basis on a hilltop), identifying where mass assembling of people occurs is essential for many planning applications. Use this category to capture such use information. Often this may mean assigning a mass assembly category to areas that alread have other activity categories assigned. Apply this category when other more specific mass assembly categories are inappropriate.
`6700`	Gatherings at galleries, museums, aquariums, zoological parks, etc.	Public assembly gatherings at galleries, museums, aquariums, zoological parks, and similar exhibition services are characterized by a steady stream of people as opposed to mass congregation of viewers at movie theaters and such. Although the distinction may not be significant, certain public assembly activities require this information separate from other kinds of gatherings in planning for public safety.
`6800`	Historical or cultural celebrations, parades, reenactments, etc.	These are usually annual gatherings, parades, and cultural celebrations that may involve shows, amusement park-like assembly of people, and selling food, drink and souvenirs.

7000 Leisure activities

Code	Category	Description
`7000`	Leisure activities	This is a catch-all category for classifying all forms of leisure activities. It includes the customary active and passive kinds of leisure activities although such distinctions are difficult to define. Although LBCS provides active and passive subcategories, for new data classification purposes either apply this category (for top level coding) or identify the precise nature of activities (which are at the third-level coding).
`7100`	Active leisure sports and related activities	This category refers to an arbitrary second-level coding to accommodate existing data classified as either active or passive leisure activities. Although the distinction between active and passive are difficult to separate, use this category only if more precise lower-level categories are combined in existing data. For new data classification purposes either apply this category (for top level coding) or identify the precise nature of activities (which are at the third-level coding).
`7110`	Running, jogging, bicycling, aerobics, exercising, etc.	Although these activities are normally associated with bike paths, jogging trails, sidewalks, and such facilities, they also include the kinds that happen on athletic tracks and playgrounds. Exercising and aerobic activities include those that take place in health clubs and gymnasiums besides outdoor facilities.
`7120`	Equestrian sporting activities	This category is for all equestrian-related leisure activities including riding, mounting, horsemanship, and equestrian games, such as polo, hurdles, dressage training and show jumping. The related categories include those incidental to maintaining stables, feeding, caring, and housing horses.
`7130`	Hockey, ice skating, etc.	This is a broad category to include activities normally associated with ice rinks and skating on ice. Hockey and other sports on ice are also included in this category.
`7140`	Skiing, snowboarding, etc.	This is a broad category that includes leisure sport activities on snow: skiing, luge, bobsled, toboggan.
`7150`	Automobile and motorbike racing	This is a broad category to include the myriad forms of vehicular sports including automobile racing, dirt racing, motorcycle racing, and other cross-country type events.
`7160`	Golf	Includes other leisure activities, such as pall-mall, tipcart, croquet, golf, curling, and pall one besides golf.
`7180`	Tennis	Because of its unique site development characteristic, traditionally lawn tennis (as opposed to table tennis) has been classified distinct from other sporting activities. It also includes related sports, such as racquet ball.
`7190`	Track and field, team sports (baseball, basketball, etc.), or other sports	This includes activities associated with playing baseball, basketball, and other related games.
`7200`	Passive leisure activity	This category refers to an arbitrary second-level coding to accommodate existing data classified as either active or passive leisure activities. Although the distinction between active and passive are difficult to separate, use this category only if more precise lower-level categories are combined in existing data. For new data classification purposes either apply this category (for top level coding) or identify the precise nature of activities (which are at the third-level coding).
`7210`	Camping	Camping is a broad category that includes parts of activities associated with of shelter, recreation, and other related activities, such as hunting, fishing, sailing, etc. The designation applies to only those camping areas and camp grounds where camps are allowed.
`7220`	Gambling	Casinos normally host gambling, wagering, and those establishments that serve the gaming aspects of leisure activities. However, many other types of establishments also provide slot machines, and other gambling and gaming facilities (shopping centers in Las Vegas, for instance).
`7230`	Hunting	Hunting activities include live and also clay pigeon and skeet shooting.
`7240`	Promenading and other activities in parks	This is a catch-all category for all other areas of parks and recreational areas that do not qualify under any of the other more specific categories.
`7250`	Shooting	—
`7260`	Trapping	—
`7300`	Flying or air-related sports	—
`7400`	Water sports and related leisure activities	—
`7410`	Boating, sailing, etc.	—
`7420`	Canoeing, kayaking, etc.	—
`7430`	Swimming, diving, etc.	Includes activities associated with lifeguard services and other related activities.
`7440`	Fishing, angling, etc.	—
`7450`	Scuba diving, snorkeling, etc.	—
`7460`	Water-skiing	—

Code	Category	Description
`8000`	Natural resources-related activities	—
`8100`	Farming, tilling, plowing, harvesting, or related activities	Agricultural activities, such as farming, plowing, tilling, cropping, seeding, cultivating, and harvesting for the production of food and fiber products. Also includes sod production, nurseries, orchards, and Christmas tree plantations. Excludes forest logging and timber-harvesting operations.
`8200`	Livestock related activities	Activities associated with feeding and raising of livestock in pens and confined structures.
`8300`	Pasturing, grazing, etc.	Activities normally associated with feeding and grazing in open ranges.
`8400`	Logging	Activities normally associated with forestry.
`8500`	Quarrying or stone cutting	Includes activities normally associated with borrow pits.
`8600`	Mining including surface and subsurface strip mining	Includes crushing, screening, washing, and flotation activities. Beneficiating is another common term used to describe such activities.
`8700`	Drilling, dredging, etc.	Includes activities normally associated with on and off-shore drilling for oil and natural gas operations, dredging for beach control, expanding waterways, and cleaning of canals or channels.

9000 No human activity or unclassifiable activity

Code	Category	Description
`9000`	No human activity or unclassifiable activity	May also be used as a placeholder for areas of no habitation (desert areas, for example).
`9100`	Not applicable to this dimension	Use this code as a permanent code for those records that will never be classified in this dimension. It is normal for land-use databases to have records that may never be classified and be left blank instead. But LBCS recommends that all records have a code because some computer applications may not be able handle blank entries (null values in database terminology).
`9200`	Unclassifiable activity	Use this category as a temporary placeholder for activities that cannot be grouped anywhere until the classification scheme is updated. Check the before revising the classification scheme.
`9300`	Subsurface activity	Use this category for activities that occur below the surface that are of no interest to the applications that will use this data set and assigning one of the unknown categories may be inappropriate.
`9900`	To be determined	Use this code as a placeholder until an appropriate code can be assigned. It is normal for land-use databases to have records that may never be classified and left blank instead. But LBCS recommends that all records have a code because some computer applications may not be able handle blank entries (null values in database terminology). This code could also be used as the default value for data-entry work. The subcategories serve the same purpose for other coding levels.
`9990`	To be determined	—
`9999`	To be determined	—

Notes on applying these codes

Assign the most detailed code you can support. Where a parcel hosts several activities, code the dominant one and, if the data model allows, carry the secondary activities in additional fields rather than inventing a blended code.
Gaps in the numbering are intentional. The activity dimension has no 5300 series, for example — LBCS leaves room for codes to be added without renumbering what is already in use.

Source

Code numbers, category names, and category descriptions on this page are reproduced from the American Planning Association's LBCS standard tables (1 April 2001).

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