geo.be Metadata Catalog
geo.be Metadata Catalog (National Geographic Institute)
https://publish.geo.be:/geonetwork/srv/eng/thesaurus.download?ref=external.theme.httpinspireeceuropaeumetadatacodelistSpatialScope-SpatialScope (2)
Continents, countries, sea regions of the world.
View Service (WMS) for Synoptic observations
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Summer and winter maximum daily precipitation given in mm/day that occur once in a year and once in 5, 10, 15 and 30 years (i.e. return periods of 1 year and 5, 10, 15, 30 years). The precipitation extremes are available for the present target year 1975, which corresponds to the middle of the 30-year period 1961-1990.
climate projections,Belgium,Representative Concentration Pathway,high resolution
Meteorology, weather and radiation conditions
•The custodian of the resource holds the rights of property (including the rights of intellectual property) to the geographic files •The custodian grants the user the right to use the data for his internal use. •Commercial use of the data under any form is strictly forbidden •Custodian’s name must be mentioned each time the data are being used publically.
In the follow-up Belspo funded 'CICADA' project (2019-2021, https://www.belspo.be/belspo/brain-be/projects/FinalReports/CICADAbe_FinRep.pdf), these Belgian climate model projections were used to adjust the spread of climate change signals based on the larger model ensemble of all available CMIP5 Global Climate Model runs (https://pcmdi.llnl.gov/mips/cmip5/) and EURO-CORDEX Regional Climate Model runs (https://euro-cordex.net/060378/index.php.en). This multi-model ensemble of climate change signals or factors were used to apply a statistical downscaling or more specifically a quantile perturbation method on the observational climate grid from the Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium. From those ensembles, 5th, 50th, and 95th percentiles of changes, corresponding to a mean (50th percentiles) and high (5th or 95th percentiles) impact scenario, were obtained for the variables: precipitation, temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, global solar radiation and potential evapotranspiration.
Beach Litter collected in 2023-2024 by citizen science association the Proper Strand Lopers
Beach Litter count data collected across 10 beaches of the Belgian coast in 2023 and 2024 by volunteers of the citizen science association Proper Strand Lopers. One of the key indicators of abundance, composition and trends of litter in the marine environment is the amount on beaches. OSPAR monitors litter on 100m stretches at over 70 beaches in the North-East Atlantic following common monitoring guidelines. The monitoring records litter in 112 predefined litter items in 11 types: Plastic / polystyrene, Metal, Paper and cardboard, Wood, Sanitary waste, Cloth, Rubber, Glass, Pottery/ceramics, Medical waste and Faeces.
Volunteers clean a defined area of 100 metres in 10 beach municipalities on the Belgian coast four times a year, and meticulously record what has been cleared. Macrolitter items are identified based on the Joint List of Litter Categories for Marine Macrolitter Monitoring.
Air quality monitoring network of Belgium
The air quality monitoring networks in Belgium are used for the assessment of air quality under the air quality directives (2008/50/EC & 2004/107/EC).
The dataset is created in the context of the 2008/50/EC Framework Directive. The Belgian territory is devided into zones according to the instructions listed in the 2008/50/EC Directive. The assessment methods are used to provide information for the assessment of air quality in Belgium towards the Commission. Member States shall make the information referred to in paragraph 1 available to the Commission for a full calendar year no later than 9 months after the end of each calendar year.
Bird density profiles derived from weather radar measurements
Bird density profiles are derived from weather radar volume data in real time, by the vol2bird algorithm as described in Dokter et al. (2011, 2019). The vol2bird algorithm exploits the radar reflectivity characteristics of different scatterers in the atmosphere, in order to distinguish biological from non-biological radar echoes. Once biological scatterers are isolated in the volume files, the reflectivity of these scatterers is converted in an estimate of the bird density per vertical layer of 200m, using a mean cross section of 11 cm2. The vbird profiles are provided for the following radars, with the radar owner in parentheses: Jabbeke (RMI), Wideumont (RMI), Helchteren (VMM), Zaventem (Skeyes), Herwijnen (KNMI), Den Helder (KNMI), Neuheilenbach (DWD), Essen (DWD), Abbeville (Météo-France) and Avesnois (Météo-France). References: - Dokter A.M., Liechti F., Stark H., Delobbe L., Tabary P., Holleman I., Bird migration flight altitudes studied by a network of operational weather radars, J. R. Soc. Interface, 8, 30–43, 2011, DOI 10.1098/rsif.2010.0116 - Dokter A.M., Desmet P., Spaaks J.H., van Hoey S., Veen L., Verlinden L., Nilsson C., Haase G., Leijnse H., Farnsworth A., Bouten W., Shamoun-Baranes J., bioRad: biological analysis and visualization of weather radar data, Ecography, 42, 852-860, 2019, DOI 10.1111/ecog.04028
Bird density profiles are generated for every individual radar volume scan, and hence inherit the time resolution from the originating radar scan cycle. All radars used in this data repository operate in a five minute scan cycle. The produced output file is a plain text file, and contains a concatenation of subsequent vertical profile outputs (vpts = vertical profile time series). It contains the following columns: - date: Date (UTC) - time: Time (UTC) - HGHT: Height bin (lower bound) in m above ground level. - u: Speed component west to east in m/s. - v: Speed component north to south in m/s. - w: Vertical speed (unreliable!) in m/s. - ff: Horizontal speed in m/s. - dd: Direction in degrees clockwise from north. - sd_vvp: VVP radial velocity standard deviation in m/s. - gap: Angular data gap detected in T/F. - dbz: Animal reflectivity factor in dBZ. - eta: Animal reflectivity in cm2/km3. - dens: Animal density in animals/km3. - DBZH: Total reflectivity factor (bio + meteo scattering) in dBZ. - n: Number of data points used for the ground speed estimates (quantities u, v, w, ff, dd). - n_all: Number of data points used for the radial velocity standard deviation estimate (quantity sd_vvp). - n_dbz: Number of data points used for reflectivity-based estimates (quantities dbz, eta, dens). - n_dbz_all: Number of data points used for the total reflectivity estimate (quantity DBZH). The bird density profiles are provided as is, without any manual or automatic quality control.
Hourly forecasts for each belgian commune, from current hour up to the next 5 days. This product is not publically available.
RMI forecasters analyze all the available numeric models and choose those reflecting the situation in Belgium best. These model forecasts are then corrected by the forecasters themselves. Monthly statistics are generated to evaluate the quality of the model data and the accuracy of the corrections applied by the forecasters.
Gridded observational data provides an estimate of the spatial distribution of a meteorological variable based on observations. While instrumental measurements are taken at irregularly distributed stations, gridded data represents the meteorological variable on a predefined regular grid. Gridded observational data is of strong benefit in disciplines applying distributed quantitative models to examine the influence of weather and climate. Gridded data are also very convenient to provide estimations for any specific location of interest for the user. Gridded observational data covering Belgium at a spatial resolution of 5 km (= 1360 pixels) are available for several variables (precipitations, air temperature, sunshine duration, solar radiation, relative humidity and wind speed) as well as different temporal resolutions (daily, monthly, seasonal, annual values as well as long-term climate averages). The gridded database starts in 1961 for most variables and is updated each day with the available observations of the previous day. All grids are then updated for archiving as soon as the data quality control is completed. In addition to the 5km x 5km grids, spatial averages for all each Belgian municipality are also available. This product is not publically available yet. The daily gridded climate data are available for academic profiles after registration on our open data website.
The climate grids result from the spatial interpolation of observations. The interpolation method is adapted to each variable and temporal resolution. When possible, the involved statistical procedures integrate highly correlated ancillary data in addition to the observations. To cite a few examples, air temperature is affected by several factors such as the terrain elevation and the proximity of water surfaces. Solar radiation is mainly driven by cloud cover which can be characterized by Meteosat satellite data.
Hail products are derived from the observed vertical profiles of radar reflectivity and the NWP vertical profiles of temperature. Three types of products are generated. poh : probability of hail of any size (larger than 0.5 cm diameter)expressed in %. posh : probability of severe hail(larger than 2cm)expressed in %. mesh : maximum expected size of hailexpressed in mm of hailstone diameter. All products are generated every 5 minutes. This product is not publically available yet.
Hail detection module is an implementation of two hail detection algorithms: of Witt and of Waldvogel (Waldvogelet al., 1979). The module takes radar observations and temperature information and estimates probability of hail (POH, %), probability of severe hail (POSH, %) and maximum expected size of hail (MESH, mm). The implementation of the Waldvogel algorithm is based on the Holleman's equation (I. Holleman, 2001), which was verified for Belgium by Delobbe et al. (2003). The POH is derived in the algorithm from the presence of a substantial updraft detected above the freezing level (0º-isoterm). The implementation of the Witt algorithm is based on the weighted integration of the reflectivity values between the heights of 0º-isoterm and -20º-isotherm (Witt et al., 1998). This algorithm provides POSH and MESH estimates.
Physical loss of the seabed dataset in support of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) Descriptor 6 (D06C01, 2018 Reporting)
This dataset is part of the 2018 Belgian submission for the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) linked to descriptor 6, criterion 1. This dataset describes and maps the the physical loss of the seabed in the Belgian part of the North Sea (BPNS) in the period 2011-2016. The dataset combines the different human activities responsible for a loss of seabed, including wrecks, measuring piles and radar stations, pipelines, power and telecommunication cables with their rock dump, and wind farms. The area lost is mapped and quantified per year, per activity and per benthic broad habitat.
Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/138 of 21 December 2022 laying down a list of specific high-value datasets and the arrangements for their publication and re-use (Text with EEA relevance)
Greater North Sea, incl. the Kattegat and the English Channel
(Criteria) D6C1 - Physical loss of the seabed
This dataset is the result of a combination of seven smaller shapefiles representing wrecks, measuring piles and radar stations, pipelines, power and telecommunication cables with their rock dump, and wind farms. Original data were described in different coordinates system such as WGS84, ED50 and ETRS89. A buffer is applied around point geometry (wrecks, measuring piles, radar masts) to create a serie of polygon that are reprojected in WGS84. Finally all shapefiles are dissolved and published in INSPIRE compliant ETRS89-LAEA projection. The data is then dynamically made available through WFS and statically converted to an INSPIRE-compliant GML file.
Summer and winter mean relative humidity given in %. The relative humidity fields are available for the present target year 1975, which corresponds to the middle of the 30-year period 1961-1990.
Monitoring stations (Air Quality Directive)
Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium
Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS), Directorate Natural Environment (OD Nature), Belgian Marine Data Centre (BMDC)
Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS)
Royal Belgian Institute for Natural Sciences (RBINS), Directorate Natural Environment (OD Nature), Belgian Marine Data Centre (BMDC)
Federal Public Service Health, Food chain safety and Environment - DG Environment, Marine Environment Service
Belgian Interregional Environment Agency (IRCEL - CELINE)
Royal Belgian Institute for Natural Sciences (RBINS), Directorate Natural Environment (OD Nature), Ecosystems data processing and modelling (ECODAM)