geo.be Metadata Catalog
geo.be Metadata Catalog (National Geographic Institute)
Continents, countries, sea regions of the world.
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.
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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.
Ageing intensity - Flanders and Brussels Capital Region
The ratio of the number of people aged over 80 to the number of people aged over 65 according to official statistics, per administrative entity (region, province, district and municipality) for Flanders
•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.
Every year, Statbel, the Belgian statistical office, calculates the legal population as determined by Belgian law. For this, Statbel obtains demographic data from the National Register (RRNP). The processing of this data and the formatting of the statistics are carried out almost entirely by Statbel. The National Register is a legal instrument that has existed in Belgium since 1983 and which centralizes the population registers established in each Belgian municipality from 1846. It registers all residents of Belgium in various registers: mainly the population register and foreigners (the Belgians domiciled and foreigners to settle or stay longer than three months - in Belgium), the waiting register (political refugee candidates) and diplomatic and consular registers, as well as that of European officials and members of other institutions international organizations (NATO) and their families. The official population of Belgium, which serves as the basis for the calculations of demographic indices, includes all persons from the National Register who have their main residence in Belgium, with the exception of the waiting register.
Seasonal physiological and carbon‑related measurements of suspension feeders (Mytilus edulis and Balanus crenatus) from laboratory experiments in the Belgian marine environment
UNDER EMBARGO - This dataset contains seasonal physiological measurements from controlled laboratory experiments on two dominant suspension-feeding species expected to colonise floating offshore structures: the blue mussel (Mytilus edulis; AphiaID 140480) and the wrinkled barnacle (Balanus crenatus; AphiaID 106215). The measured parameters include clearance rates, respiration rates, faecal pellet production rates, and faecal pellet sinking velocities. Mussels were collected from an aquaculture longline at the Westdiep SeaFarm, while barnacles were manually retrieved from the intertidal beachhead at Raversijde (Oostende, Belgium). All experiments were conducted using natural seawater collected from offshore sites in the Belgian part of the North Sea. Measurements were repeated across multiple seasons to capture temporal variability in physiological performance. The dataset was produced within the SWiM and EcoMPV projects and is suitable for reuse in ecosystem and biogeochemical modelling, including simulations of phytoplankton dynamics associated with large-scale offshore marine photovoltaic (MPV) developments.
Greater North Sea, incl. the Kattegat and the English Channel
Physiological measurements were obtained from controlled laboratory incubations following standardised protocols. After an acclimation period, faecal pellets were collected using a vacuum-based siphoning system and subsequently used to determine sinking velocity in still-water columns by timing their descent over fixed distances. Pellet lengths were measured from microscope images analysed in ImageJ. Respiration rates were derived from changes in dissolved oxygen concentration, which were continuously monitored using calibrated Firesting optical oxygen sensors placed in stirred incubation chambers. Clearance rates were calculated from changes in particle concentration measured with a Coulter counter, and faecal pellet production was quantified from the dry mass and carbon content of pellets collected over known time intervals. All physiological rates were standardised to organism dry weight and carbon content, determined after drying soft tissues. Quality control procedures included calibration of sensors prior to measurements, the use of replicates and procedural controls, verification of calculation procedures, and the dataset underwent standard quality checks before harmonisation and archiving.
This web service allows downloading datasets from CORINE Land Cover-2018-Belgium, compliant with the INSPIRE data specifications
Occupation and planning of sea and land areas
UNDER EMBARGO - This dataset is part of BE/2023 sampling campagn in SW Greenland fjords (Igaliku and Tunulliarfik). Samples for DNA extraction were collected along fjord transects at several depths of the water column. The focus of the study was to determine the taxonomical composotion of protist community in two Arctic fjords.
Seawater samples (500 mL) were prefiltered (100 µm) and filtered onto 0.22 µm membrane filters, then stored at −80 °C. DNA was extracted using the DNeasy PowerLyzer Microbial Kit (Qiagen) following the manufacturer’s protocol, including negative extraction controls. The V4 region of the 18S rRNA gene was amplified using the TAReuk454FWD1 and TAReukREV3 primers (Stoeck et al., 2010). Amplicon libraries were sequenced on an Illumina MiSeq platform (2 × 300 bp). Sequence data were processed using the DADA2 pipeline (v.1.14.1) in R. Primers were removed, and reads were quality filtered, trimmed, and truncated (forward reads at 280 bp). Amplicon Sequence Variants (ASVs) were inferred after dereplication and error learning, and chimeras were removed. Due to low quality of reverse reads, only forward reads were retained for downstream analyses. Taxonomic assignment was performed against the PR2 database (v.5.0.0) with a minimum bootstrap confidence of 98%. Subsequent processing (phyloseq) included removal of non-eukaryotic sequences, Metazoa, unassigned ASVs, and potential contaminants (>1% in negative controls).
2026 Belgian MSP - Cultural heritage (wrecks) zones
The Royal Decree of 20 March 2026 establishing the marine spatial plan for the period 2026 to 2034 in the Belgian marine areas defines 1 cultural heritage (wrecks) zones: Protected shipwrecks (Art. 26§1). It replaces the 2020 Marine Spatial Plan. Please refer to the Belgian official gazette ("Moniteur belgeBelgisch Staatsblad") for official reference information.
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)
Dataset is quality assured. Dataset corresponds to a digitized version of the information published in the Belgian official gazette ("Belgisch staatsblad/Moniteur belge"). Only the information published in the official gazette has legal validity.
The law of 13 June 1969 defines “Belgian Continental Shelf” as follows: the seabed and the subsoil of the marine areas adjacent to the Belgian coast but beyond the Belgian territorial sea.
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.
Population structure by age and gender - Wallonia
The number of inhabitants according to official statistics per age group of 5 years and gender by administrative entity (region, province, district and municipality) for Wallonia.
Supplier: Statbel (IWEPS calculations) Comparable data over time, available here from 1985. Each year, Statbel, the Belgian statistical office, calculates the legal population figure as determined by Belgian law. For this, Statbel draws demographic data from the national register (RN). The RN is a legal tool that has existed in Belgium since 1983 which centralizes the population registers established in each Belgian municipality from 1846. It registers all residents of Belgium in different registers: mainly the population register and foreigners (the Belgians and foreigners domiciled - authorized to settle or stay for more than three months - in Belgium), the waiting register (political refugee candidates) and diplomatic and consular registers as well as that of European officials and members of other institutions international organizations (NATO) and their families. The official population of Belgium, which serves as the basis for the calculations of demographic indices, counts all of the RN people who have their main residence in Belgium, excluding the waiting register.
Pelagic community cell abundances and carbon biomass
UNDER EMBARGO - This dataset is part of BE/2023 sampling campagn in SW Greenland fjords (Igaliku and Tunulliarfik). Pelagic community was analysed using Imaging Flow Cytometry (iFCM) with an ImageStream®X Mk II. Cells were grouped into functional size classes—pico-, nano- and microplankton—according to measured cell length. Cells lacking chlorophyll autofluorescence were classified as heterotrophic or chemotrophic organisms, including heterotrophic picoplankton/bacteria (HP; ≤2 µm) and heterotrophic nanoplankton (HN; 2–20 µm). No larger heterotrophs (>20 µm) were visually detected. Autofluorescent cells were considered phototrophic, although this fraction may also include mixotrophic taxa, and comprised picophytoplankton (AP; ≤2 µm), nanophytoplankton (AN; 2–20 µm), and microphytoplankton (AMicro; 20–100 µm). To estimate the biovolume of each plankton class, the two-dimensional cell surface area measured by the IDEAS® imaging software was multiplied by the mean cell width, assuming that cell width approximates the third spatial dimension. Carbon biomass was subsequently derived from biovolume using established carbon–volume relationships. For the HP fraction, carbon content was estimated using the bacterial conversion proposed by Romanova and Sazhin (2010), where volume is expressed in µm³. Although the HP fraction may also include heterotrophic picoeukaryotes, and its biomass may therefore be partly underestimated, this conversion was applied because the fraction was assumed to be numerically dominated by bacteria. For the other protist groups, carbon biomass was derived following Menden-Deuer and Lessard (2000). Carbon values were converted from pg C cell⁻¹ to carbon biomass (µg C L⁻¹) based on cell abundance.
Because the upper size detection limit of this instrument (iFCM) is 100 µm, 14 mL of each seawater sample was pre-filtered through a 100 µm mesh to remove larger particles. The filtrate was subsequently fixed with glutaraldehyde (final concentration 1.0%) and stored at 4 °C. Samples were allowed to sediment for at least 48 h, after which the supernatant was carefully removed to obtain a final 7× concentration. This concentration step was necessary to compensate for the relatively low abundance of larger cells within the small analytical volume processed by the instrument.Prior to acquisition, 0.5 mL of each sample was stained with 1% (v/v) SYBR Green I (100× working solution in DMSO) and incubated in the dark at 37 °C for 20 min. Microscopic images (40× magnification; pixel size 0.5 × 0.5 µm) and flow cytometry signals, including brightfield images, fluorescence at 488 nm (SYBR Green–stained nucleic acids), and fluorescence at 642 nm (chlorophyll autofluorescence), were recorded for further analysis.Using IDEAS® software (v. 6.2), plankton populations were identified and quantified based on their optical and fluorescence characteristics.
Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium
Province of Antwerp Province of West Flanders Province of East Flanders province of Flemisch Brabant Province of Limburg
Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS), Directorate Natural Environment (OD Nature), Belgian Marine Data Centre (BMDC)
Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS)
Laboratorium voor Protistologie en Aquatische Ecologie, Departement Biologie (UGent)
Walloon Institute for Evaluation, Foresight and Statistics (IWEPS)