Zoning plan legend
The colours on the zoning plan map follow the SOSI standard for area purposes. This page shows the main categories and what they typically mean in practice.
Main categories
| Colour | Category | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| Yellow | Housing | Residential development: detached houses, flats, terraced houses |
| Brown | Town centre purpose, combined | Town centre development, mixed use |
| Purple | Business | Office, industry, warehousing |
| Red | Public or private services | School, kindergarten, health, culture |
| Pink | Retail | Retail trade, shopping centre |
| Grey | Transport facilities and technical infrastructure | Road, railway, parking |
| Dark green | Green structure | Park, playground, walking path |
| Light green | Agriculture, nature and outdoor recreation purposes (LNF) | Forest, cultivated land, outdoor recreation |
| Blue | Use and protection of sea and watercourses | Water surface, harbour area |
| Grey hatched | Hazard area | Flooding, landslide, quick clay, high-voltage power lines |
| Brown hatched | Conservation | Cultural heritage, buildings worth preserving |
How the colours look on the map
Zoning plans over central Bergen, with yellow for housing, red for public services, pink for retail, purple for business and green for green structure. Hatched areas are additional purposes such as hazard or conservation, placed on top of the main purpose.
Oslo has its own legend
Oslo kommune manages its own zoning plans, in a separate map layer with more detailed plan information than the nationwide copy. The colours follow the conventions used by Plan- og bygningsetaten (the city planning and building agency), so the table above does not always hold for Oslo. See Regulatory Plans (Oslo) for the source, and the Plan- og bygningsetaten map solution for full plan documentation.
Why the colours sometimes differ
Municipalities can add local area purposes beyond the SOSI standard, and the colours in the municipality plan can differ from the zoning plans. If you see a colour that does not match the table above, open the zoning plan in Placepoint and read the provisions directly. The provisions always take precedence over the colour.
Zoning plans with hatching or a pattern often mean that the area has an additional purpose, typically conservation or hazard, on top of the main purpose.
The municipality plan is coarser than the zoning plan and covers the whole municipality. Here the large LNF areas in light green dominate, and the purpose codes appear as text on top of the areas:
Official SOSI specification
The full SOSI specification for area plans is published as code lists by Geonorge: SOSI code lists for zoning plans (with RpArealformål, consideration zones and provisions) and SOSI code lists for plans (shared by the municipality plan and the zoning plan). The standard is managed by Kartverket together with Kommunal- og distriktsdepartementet.