geo.be Metadata Catalog
geo.be Metadata Catalog (National Geographic Institute)
Continents, countries, sea regions of the world.
The composite is produced every 5 minutes using the reflectivity data from the Wideumont and Jabbeke weather radars. This product is not publicly available yet.
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) This is a human-readable summary of (and not a substitute for) the license. You are free to: Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially. Under the following terms: Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
The rainfall composite combines 2D products from the Wideumont, Jabbeke and Zaventem weather radars. Reflectivity values are converted into rainrates using the Marshall-Palmer relation. For each pixel, the maximum value of the three products is taken. The effective coverage of the composite is smaller than the bounding box. It is determined by the maximum ranges of the three radars, i.e. 250 km for Wideumont, 300 km for Jabbeke, and 250 km for Zaventem.
Download Service (WFS) for Networks of automatic lidar-ceilometer systems
Download Service (WFS) for Networks of automatic lidar-ceilometer systems The data are updated each 10 minutes. Only the archives of the last 30 days are available.
Download Service (WFS) for 'User reports from the RMI smartphone app'
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) This is a human-readable summary of (and not a substitute for) the license. You are free to: Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially. Under the following terms: Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits. Scientific publications should refer to https://doi.org/10.5194/ecss2023-50
Belgian Lightning Location System (BELLS)
Total lightning observations, i.e., cloud-to-ground (CG) strokes and intra/inter-cloud (IC) pulses, in Belgium. BELLS data is given in Universal Time! (local time winter = UT +1; local time summer = UT + 2). Each record contains following fields: 1. Network type, 0 = LF, 1 = VHF-TOA, 2 = VHF-ITF, 3 = VLF 2. Year, 1970 to 2032. 3. Month, with January as 1 and December as 12. 4. Day of the month, 1 to 31. 5. Hour, 0 to 23. 6. Minute, 0 to 59. 7. Second, 0 to 60. 8. Nanosecond, 0 to 999999999. 9. Latitude of the calculated location in decimal degrees, to 4 decimal places, -90.0 to 90.0. 10. Longitude of the calculated location in decimal degrees, to 4 decimal places, -180.0 to 180.0. 11. Altitude in meters, -4950 to +60535. This field will be 0 if the altitude is not provided in the lightning data. 12. The altitude uncertainty in meters. This field will be 0 if the altitude uncertainty is not provided in the lightning data. 13. Estimated peak current in kiloamps, -9999 to 9999. 14. VHF Range normalized power, -9999.0 to 9999.0 15. Multiplicity for flash data (1 to 99) or 0 for strokes. 16. Cloud pulse count for the lightning record. This field will be -1 if the lightning did not contain the cloud pulse count attribute. 17. Number of sensors participating in the solution, 2 to 99. 18. Degrees of freedom when optimizing location, 0 to 99. 19. The error ellipse angle as a clockwise bearing from 0 degrees north, 0 to 180.0 degrees 20. The error ellipse semi-major axis length in kilometers, 0 to 50.0km. 21. The error ellipse semi-minor axis length in kilometers, 0 to 50.0km. 22. Chi-squared value from location optimization, 0 to 999.99 23. Rise time of the waveform in microseconds, 0 to 99.9 24. Peak-to-zero time of the waveform in microseconds, 0 to 999.9 25. Maximum rate-of-rise of the waveform in kA/usec (will be a negative rate if discharge is negative), -999.9 to 999.9 26. Cloud indicator, 1 if Cloud-to-cloud discharge, 0 for Cloud-to-ground 27. Angle indicator, 1 if sensor angle data used to compute position, 0 otherwise 28. Signal indicator, 1 if sensor signal data used to compute position, 0 otherwise 29. Timing indicator, 1 if sensor timing data used to compute position, 0 otherwise 30. Flash ID, a unique integer value identifying the flash grouping a stroke belongs to or 0 if not set. This product is not publically available yet.
BELLS is a low-frequency ground-based lightning network. The lightning sensors and central processor are based on Vaisala technology. Only lightning records that fulfill certain quality criteria, e.g., length of the semi-major axis, minimum number of sensors participating, are included.
The zones are used as reporting units of the air quality in Belgium. These zones are defined based on Article 3 of the 2004/107/EC Directive and Article 4 of the 2008/50/EC Directive. A zones shall mean a part of the territory of a Member State, as delimited by that Member State for the purposes of air quality assessment and management (source: 2008/50/EC).2008/50/EC Article 4: Establishment of zones and agglomerations: Member States shall establish zones and agglomerations throughout their territory. Air quality assessment and air quality management shall be carried out in all zones and agglomerations.
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. Air Quality Assessment Zones are pollutant specific and only applicable for a given year. The data service supports Common Query Language (CQL).
Digital surface model Meuse, Vesdre and Demer
This dataset shows a digital surface model. It is a homogeneous and regular points grid which indicates the height above the surface of the earth, either the soil or any other permanent and visible element in the landscape (vegetation, construction,…). These data represent the situation of the landscape resulting from the July 2021 floods in het areas of the Vesdre, of part of the Meuse downstream from Liège and of the Demer.
•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.
The source data which have been used for the production of this DSM are the DSM with a resolution of 20 cm, obtained by the processing of the point cloud resulting from the correlation of the high resolution images, made by Hanse Luftbild on demand of the NGI, on 18, 20 en 21 July above the valleys of the Vesdre, the Meuse and the Demer.
Distribution of real estate assets - Legal persons
Distribution of real estate assets - Legal persons corresponds to the dataset relating to the distribution of real estate assets owned by legal entities such as recorded by the FPS Finance for tax purposes. This dataset is composed of eight classes. The first class mentions, at national level, for each cadastral income bracket, the number of legal persons grouped together by economic activity with real estate capital valued in the relevant bracket as well as the total and median cadastral income of the parcels held by these entities. The assessment of the cadastral income takes into account the shares actually held. The second class includes this information at the level of the three regions. The following classes do the same at the level of provinces, districts, municipalities, land register divisions and statistical sectors. The last class includes this information at the level of the countries for the legal entities which are not settled in Belgium but wich are nevertheless reigstred at the Carrefour Banque of the Entreprises. The dataset can be freely downloaded as a zipped CSV.
The licence is fully available in French (https://finances.belgium.be/sites/default/files/Licence_plan_opendata_FR.PDF) or in Dutch (https://financien.belgium.be/sites/default/files/Licentie_plan_opendata_NL.PDF).
Distribution of real estate assets - Legal persons is compiled from the contents of the reference database for the land register data as well as from the contents of the database of legal entities. In the first, the holders of rights in rem, the nature of their right and various characteristics used to determine its cadastral income are recorded for each parcel. These variables are determined, after investigation, by the agents of the FPS Finance at the time of the creation of the parcel, after a physical modification of the parcel or after a possible control carried out by the FPS Finance, in particular following the change of a right in rem or the recording of a deed. The second database contains, for each legal entity, various pieces of information from the Crossroads Bank for Enterprises, which is the authentic source for legal entities.
Owners' origin - Natural persons corresponds to the dataset describing the origin of the natural persons holders of real rights over immovable properties located in Belgium according to the municipality of residence for residents and according to the country or territory of residence for the non-residents. This dataset is made up of seven classes. The first class shows, at national level, for each type of property, the total number of parcels, the number of parcels held by holders from each Belgian municipality and the number of parcels held by holders from each country or territory. The number of parcels takes into account the shares actually held. The second class shows this information at the level of the three regions. The following classes do the same at the level of provinces, arrondissements, municipalities, land register divisions and statistical sectors. The dataset is freely downloadable, in the form of zipped CSV files.
Owners’ origin - Natural persons is based on the reference cadastral database and the database relating to natural persons. The former records for each parcel, the cadastral nature, the holders of real rights and the nature of their right. These variables are determined following a change in real right or following the registration of a deed. The second database contains various items of information for each individual from the National Register, the authentic source for Belgian individuals or for foreigners domiciled in Belgium, or from the BIS Register, the authentic source for foreigners with an interest in Belgium but are not domiciled there.
The climate projections for Belgium are available as different data types: 1/ Daily climate model simulations and projections at a high spatial resolution of 0.025° or 2.8km for 3 Regional Climate Models (download service with NetCDF files): - ALARO-0 forced with the Global Climate Model ‘CNRM-CERFACS-CNRM-CM5’, calculated by RMIB-UGent; - COSMO-CLM5.0-TERRA-URB forced with the Global Climate model ‘ICHEC-EC-EARTH’, calculated by KULeuven; - COSMO-CLM5.0 forced with the Global Climate Model ‘MPI-M-MPI-ESM-LR’, calculated by UCLouvain. 2/ Climate indicators for a present (1975) and future (2085) target year under a mean and high impact scenario (view and download service with raster files). The climate indicators for Belgium were obtained by a statistical downscaling based on the high-resolution Belgian climate model projections, as well as on a large set of both Global Climate Model runs (CMIP5) and Regional Climate Model runs for Europe (EURO-CORDEX).
climate projections,Belgium,Representative Concentration Pathway,high resolution
Meteorology, weather and radiation conditions
1/ Daily climate model simulations and projections at a high spatial resolution of 0.025° or 2.8km for 3 Regional Climate Models (download service with NetCDF files): The daily climate simulations and projections for Belgium were produced in the context of the Belspo funded CORDEX.be I project (2015-2017). These climate model data in NetCDF format for 3 Regional Climate Models (ALARO-0, COSMO-CLM5.0-TERRA-URB and COSMO-CLM5.0) were obtained through a dynamical downscaling of Global Climate Modeldata, after which a regridding to a common 0.025° or 2.8km grid has been applied. Historical model simulations (1975-2005) and projections according to multiple emission scenarios or Representative Concentration Pathways (rcp26, rcp45, rcp85) as used in the Fifth Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Assessment Report are available for the parameters: 1. huss = near-surface specific humidity at 2 m [1] 2. hurs = near-surface relative humidity at 2 m [%] 3. pr = precipitation [kg m-2 s-1]; to get precipitation in mm/day, the data should be multiplied by 60*60*24 = 86400 4. ps = surface air pressure [Pa] 5. rsds = surface incoming shortwave radiation [W m-2] 6. tas = average near-surface air temperature at 2 m [K] 7. tasmax = maximum near-surface air temperature at 2 m [K] 8. tasmin = minimum near-surface air temperature at 2 m [K] 9. uas = eastward near-surface wind at 10 m [m s-1] 10. vas = northward near-surface wind at 10 m [m s-1] All information and background on the use of the data can be found in the user guide (see link below). More information on the Regional Climate Models as used in the CORDEX.be I project can be found in the scientific paper Termonia et al. (2018), Tables 2 and 3: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405880717300195?via%3Dihub or https://www.belspo.be/belspo/brain-be/projects/FinalReports/CORDEXbe_FinRep_AD.pdf. Climate model simulations and projections for Belgium from the Regional Climate Model called ‘MAR’, which are forced by the latest CMIP6 Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (or SSP) as used in the Sixth and latest IPCC Assessment Report, are available through the University of Liège by: - FTP on ftp://climato.be/fettweis/MARv3.14/Belgium/ - HTTP on http://phypc15.geo.ulg.ac.be/fettweis/MARv3.14/Belgium/ The model outputs are available by degree of warming (ref/, 2deg/ using ssp370, 3deg/ using ssp370, 4deg/ using ssp585) or by full time series (the 4 SSP) in src/. Belgian climate simulations and projections for other Regional Climate Models (ALARO-0 – RMIB-UGent, COSMO-CLM - KULeuven) in line with the latest emission scenarios or Shared Socioeconomic Pathways are currently produced in the CORDEX.be II project and will be available by 2026 (https://cordex.meteo.be/). 2/ Climate indicators for a present (1975) and future (2085) target year under a mean and high impact scenario (view and download service with raster files): 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.
Networks of automatic lidar-ceilometer systems
The ceilometer CL51 employs a pulsed diode laser LIDAR technology, where short, powerful laser pulses are sent out in a vertical or near-vertical direction. The reflection of light (backscatter) caused by clouds, precipitation or other obscuration is analysed and used to determine the cloud base height, the cloud layer height and the amount of clouds (in octas) in different layers.
The cloud base height, the cloud layer height and the amount of clouds in different layers are computed by the Vaisala CL51 algorithm based on raw backscatter data (time resolution: 6 s and vertical resolution: 10 m). The sky condition algorithm is calculated every five minutes based on data collected during the last 30 minutes. The last 10 minutes are double-weighted to make the algorithm more responsive to variations in cloudiness. The algorithm uses cloud base height and timing information to find cloud base height close each other. These cloud base height are combined into clusters and a height value is calculated for each cluster. This height gives the base height of a cloud layer represented by the cluster. The algorithm reports layers by combining clusters whose heights are close to each other and then selecting clusters that cover the greatest amount of sky.
Management zones and agglomerations (Air Quality Directive)
Area management/restriction/regulation zones and reporting units
https://ac.ngi.be/remoteclient-open/GeoBePartners-open/BelgianClimateCentre/UserGuide/User guide for daily climate model simulations and projections for Belgium.pdf
https://ac.ngi.be/remoteclient-open/GeoBePartners-open/BelgianClimateCentre/UserGuide/User guide geo.be.pdf
Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium
Belgian Interregional Environment Agency (IRCEL - CELINE)
FPS Finance - General Administration of Patrimonial Documentation (GAPD)