This dataset represents the location of the Princess Elizabeth zone in the Belgian Part of the North Sea as described in the Royal Decree of May 22th, 2019, establishing a marine spatial plan for the period 2020-2026. Art. 8. § 3.

This dataset represents main data about the cores of Belgian boreholes that are stored by the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences. Data is distributed as shapefile with multiple meta-infomations such as unique borehole reference, depth, location, lithology and a link to access the core and lithological descriptions.

This dataset is part of the 2018 Belgian submission for the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) linked to descriptor 1, criterion 2. The Raja clavata dataset describes the results of the Offshore Beam Trawl Surveys (BTS) in the Belgian part of the North Sea (BPNS) between 2010 and 2017. Occurrences of Raja Clavata, along with dates and locations, are reported. The codes used in the attached file are based on the ICES DATRAS (Database of Trawl Surveys) standard. The seabirds dataset describes the density of seabirds (N birds/km) observed in the BPNS between 1987 and 2016 (three surveys a year).

This dataset is part of the 2018 Belgian submission for the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) linked to descriptor 7, criterion 1. This dataset describes the impact of an offshore windmills farm on the hydrodynamics in the Belgian part of the North Sea (BPNS). Originally, it is a NetCDF file with the results of the reference simulation made with the COHERENS (COupled Hydrodynamical Ecological model for REgioNal Shelf seas) hydrodynamic model only forced by tides (no wind effect). Model resolution : ~ 12.5m. It contains both the reference situation which is a simulation without any windmill and the modeling result of the influence by the windmills on the hydrodynamic in the BPNS. The dataset contains the results on the most inner nested grid level for one reference spring-neap cycle: - hourly sea surface elevation - hourly bottom shear stress - hourly 3D horizontal velocity components (u,v) - hourly 3D eddy viscosity - time-averaged bottom shear stress over the reference spring-neap cycle - percentile 90 of the bottom shear stress for the reference spring-neap cycle - percentile 90 of the specific kinetic energy at the sea bed - accumulated time during which sedimentation processes are dominant - accumulated time during which re-suspension processes are dominant.

This dataset is part of the 2018 Belgian submission for the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) linked to descriptor 2, criterion 1. This dataset lists the newly-introduced species encountered on buoys and in epibenthic and Van Veen grab samples taken in the Belgian part of the North Sea (BPNS) between 2011 and 2016.

The Royal Decree of 22 May 2019 establishing a marine spatial plan defines 1 coastal protection experiments zone: Zone for coastal protection experiments (Art. 16§2). It replaces the 2014 Marine Spatial Plan, which is included for completeness. The Royal Decree of 20 March 2014 establishing a marine spatial plan defines in its Art. 12. §1 one zone for coastal protection experiments. This zone is made available digitally in the resource described by this metadata document. Please refer to the Belgian official gazette (\"Moniteur belge/Belgisch Staatsblad\") for official reference information.

This dataset is part of the 2018 Belgian submission for the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) linked to descriptor 8, criterion 3. This dataset gives an overview of the observed slicks during aerial survey operations of the Belgian part of the North Sea (2011-2016). Related to significant acute pollution, it includes the observations linked to the Flinterstar incident in 2015. Besides this, all observations of illegal discharges of MARPOL (International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships) annex I and II substances are included as an additional dataset.

This dataset represents the exact location of electrical cables installed in the Belgian Part of the North Sea, including these for for the wind farms.

This dataset is part of the 2018 Belgian submission for the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) linked to descriptor 5, criterion 2. This dataset contains the average of the 90th percentile chlorophyll a concentration during the growing season (march-october) in the Belgian part of the North Sea for the years 2011-2016. Chlorophyll a concentration (Chl) was generated from satellite daily data from ocean colour sensors. Data is supplied at approximately 1 km resolution on a geographical grid with equal spacing in longitude and latitude covering the described region.

This dataset is part of the 2018 Belgian submission for the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) linked to descriptor 11, criterion 1. This dataset describes the impulsive noise generated during percussion pile emplacement for offshore wind farm construction and unexploded ordnance (UxO) explosions. Impulsive underwater sound (pressure) was measured during pile driving operations in Belgian waters, for different types of foundations (monopiles of different diameters, foundations of ducts with a smaller diameter) and hydraulic hammers with different energy powers. The results of measurements at Bligh Bank and Thornton Bank, with a resulting extrapolation of zero to peak noise level (Lz-p) at 750m and Sound Exposure Level (SEL) (no mitigation measures deployed), are presented (Norro et al., 2013).