The Royal Decree of 20 March 2026 establishing a marine spatial plan defines Seabed Integrity Zone_Top Art. 10. § 1.1°, Seabed Integrity Zone_Middle Art. 10. § 1.2°, Seabed Integrity Zone_Bottom Art. 10. § 1.3°, RAMSAR Art. 11, Zone with Ban on Bottom-Disturbing Recreational Fishing Art. 24. § 2, Flemish Banks Art. 8. § 1, Raan Flat Art. 8. § 3, SBZ1 Art. 8. § 5.1°, SBZ2 Art. 8. § 5.2°, SBZ3 Art. 8. § 5.3°, Marine Reserve_Top Art. 9. § 1.1°, Marine Reserve_Middle 2a Art. 9. § 1.2°, Marine Reserve_Middle 2b Art. 9. § 2, Marine Reserve_Bottom Art. 9. § 3 Please refer to the Belgian official gazette ("Moniteur belge/Belgisch Staatsblad") for official reference information.

The Royal Decree of 20 March 2026 establishing a marine spatial plan defines Monitoring Area Thorntonbank Art. 23. § 10.1°, Monitoring Area Gootebank Art. 23. § 10.2°, Scientific Research Zone Art. 23. § 3, Search Zone for Scientific Research Reserve Art. 23. § 6, Zone Accessible for Scientific Research 1 Art. 23. § 8.1°, Zone Accessible for Scientific Research 2 Art. 23. § 8.1°, Calibration Area for Acoustic Instruments Art. 23. § 9 Please refer to the Belgian official gazette ("Moniteur belge/Belgisch Staatsblad") for official reference information.

The Royal Decree of 20 March 2026 establishing a marine spatial plan defines Sand and Gravel Extraction_Sector 1a Art. 19. § 1.1°, Sand and Gravel Extraction_Sector 4d Art. 19. § 1.10°, Sand and Gravel Extraction_Sector 5 Art. 19. § 1.11°, Sand Extraction_Sector 2kb Art. 19. § 1.2°, Sand Extraction_Sector 2br Art. 19. § 1.3°, Sand Extraction_Sector 2od Art. 19. § 1.4°, Sand and Gravel Extraction_Sector 3a Art. 19. § 1.5°, Sand and Gravel Extraction_Sector 3b Art. 19. § 1.6°, Sand and Gravel Extraction_Sector 4a Art. 19. § 1.7°, Sand and Gravel Extraction_Sector 4b Art. 19. § 1.8°, Sand and Gravel Extraction_Sector 4c Art. 19. § 1.9°, Extraction Search Zone Art. 19. § 4 Please refer to the Belgian official gazette ("Moniteur belge/Belgisch Staatsblad") for official reference information.

The Royal Decree of 20 March 2026 establishing a marine spatial plan defines Coastal Protection Strip Art. 20. § 2 Please refer to the Belgian official gazette ("Moniteur belge/Belgisch Staatsblad") for official reference information.

The Royal Decree of 20 March 2026 establishing a marine spatial plan defines Fisheries Research Zone Art. 17. § 2, Zone Accessible for Aquaculture and Passive Fishing Art. 18, Zone Accessible for Aquaculture Art. 18. § 1 Please refer to the Belgian official gazette ("Moniteur belge/Belgisch Staatsblad") for official reference information.

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.

The Royal Decree of 20 March 2026 establishing a marine spatial plan defines Eastern Zone Art. 12. § 1, Princess Elisabeth Zone - Noordhinder North Art. 12. § 2.2a°, Princess Elisabeth Zone - Noordhinder South Art. 12. § 2.2b°, Princess Elisabeth Zone - Fairybank Art. 12. § 2.3°, Electricity Transmission Zone Art. 12. § 4, Safeguard Area Eastern Zone Art. 12. § 5, Cable Corridors Art. 13. § 1 Please refer to the Belgian official gazette ("Moniteur belge/Belgisch Staatsblad") for official reference information.

The dataset contains the borders of the Belgian marine waters in the North Sea and the different geographical areas (‘reporting units’) used when reporting in the frame of the the Marine Strategy Framework Directive 2008/56/EC (MSFD) and the Water Framework directive 2000/60/EC (WFD). The ecological status in the frame of WFD is reported for the coastal waters, defined as the one-nautical mile area, while the chemical status needs to be reported for the territorial waters (up to 12 nautical miles). MSFD requires information for the whole area, encompassing the territorial waters and the Belgian Exclusive Economic Zone. For some descriptors, results have been reported separately for the WFD subdivisions during the update of the initial assessment in 2018.

The Royal Decree of 20 March 2026 establishing a marine spatial plan defines Fisheries Research Zone Art. 17. § 2, Zone Accessible for Aquaculture and Passive Fishing Art. 18, Zone Accessible for Aquaculture Art. 18. § 1 Please refer to the Belgian official gazette ("Moniteur belge/Belgisch Staatsblad") for official reference information.

The Scientific Service Management Unit of the Mathematical Model of the North Sea of the Royal Belgian Institute for Natural Sciences has been operating monitoring stations on the Belgian Part of the North Sea since the 1970s. These stations are located in the Scheldt estuary, at open sea and in coastal waters. In 2007, 10 new stations were designated and were placed in the monitoring network needed for the OSPAR convention, the Water Framework Directive and the Marine Strategic Framework Directive. These replaced a series of 54 previous monitoring stations whose data was gathered throughout the years for the Belgian Monitoring Programme and reported according to the recommendations of the OSPAR Convention. This dataset contains information on all monitoring stations ever used by the Scientific Service Management Unit of the Mathematical Model of the North Sea. The dataset provides location, name, operational history and for which reporting obligations they are used.