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.

3000 Industrial, manufacturing, and waste-related activities

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.

4000 Social, institutional, or infrastructure-related activities

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	—

8000 Natural resources-related activities

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).