Ratio hard substrate to soft sediment surfaces dataset supporting the 2024 Belgian MSFD assessment of D6C4

This dataset is part of the 2024 Belgian submission for the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) linked to descriptor 6, criterion 4. This dataset reports the ratio of hard-substrate surface area (colonised by hard-substrate epifauna) to soft-sediment surface area in the Belgian part of the North Sea (BPNS), which should not show a negative trend.

Date (Creation): 2025-12-17

Date (Revision): 2026-09-14

Date (Publication): 2026-10-22

Title: Digital Object Identifier

Date (Creation): 2016-05-19

Code: https://doi.org/10.24417/bmdc.be:dataset:3040

Citation identifier: http://metadata.naturalsciences.be / bmdc.be:dataset:3040
Belgian Marine Data Centre

Other citation details: This dataset is composed of the following sources: Vera Van Lancker, Frederic Francken, Lars Kint (n.d.). Mutibeam files for dataset 3040.

Point of contact

Organisation name	Electronic mail address	Role
Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS), Directorate Natural Environment (OD Nature), Belgian Marine Data Centre (BMDC)	bmdc@naturalsciences.be	Custodian
Royal Belgian Institute for Natural Sciences (RBINS), Directorate Natural Environment (OD Nature), Suspended Matter and Seabed Monitoring and Modelling (SUMO)	sumo@naturalsciences.be	Author
Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS)	info@naturalsciences.be	Owner
Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS)	info@naturalsciences.be	Publisher

Keywords

Oceanographic geographical features
Federal government
Reporting INSPIRE

GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0

Oceanographic geographical features

European Legislation Identifier

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)

Marine Regions

GEMET - Concepts, version 4.2.1

marine monitoring

NERC Vocabulary Server - C45 Vocabulary version 3.0

Sea-floor integrity supports ecosystem

INSPIRE Registry: Priority Datasets

Directive 2008/56/EC

INSPIRE Registry: Spatial scope

National

INSPIRE Registry: feature concepts

Oceanographic Geographical Features

Themes for open data catalogi in Belgium

Environment

High-value dataset categories

Earth observation and environment

Eionet Central Data Repository

(Criteria) D6C4 - Benthic habitat extent

Use constraints: Other restrictions

Other constraints: No conditions apply to access and use

Other constraints: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Access constraints: Other restrictions

Other constraints: No limitations on public access.

Use limitation: No conditions apply to use.

Classification: Unclassified

Spatial representation type: Text, table

Language: English

Topic category

Oceans

gml32:beginPosition: 2009-02-01

gml32:endPosition: 2022-07-30

Reference system identifier: http://www.opengis.net/def/crs/EPSG/0/4258

Digital transfer options

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
DOI	https://doi.org/10.24417/bmdc.be:dataset:3040	Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

Hierarchy level: Dataset

Conformance result

Title: COMMISSION REGULATION (EU) No 1089/2010 of 23 November 2010 implementing Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards interoperability of spatial data sets and services

Date (Publication): 2010-12-08

Explanation: See the referenced specification

Pass: Yes

Statement: Assessed through acoustic remote sensing (multibeam bathymetry and backscatter) and ground-truthing (grab samples and visual observations), full-coverage in two selected zones since 2014. Monitoring is coordinated by RBINS within the EU DG ENV technical group TG Seabed. Multibeam echosounder (bathymetry and backscatter); grab/visual ground-truth sampling. GIS-based spatial and acoustic backscatter classification analysis to derive the hard-to-soft-substrate ratio.

Metadata

File identifier: bmdc.be:dataset:3040 XML

Metadata language: English

Character set: UTF8

Hierarchy level: Dataset

Date stamp: 2026-10-22T15:34:49.625Z

Metadata standard name: Geographic information -- Metadata

Metadata standard version: ISO 19115:2003/19139

Metadata author

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS), Directorate Natural Environment (OD Nature), Belgian Marine Data Centre (BMDC)		bmdc@naturalsciences.be	Point of contact

Other language

Language	Character encoding
Dutch; Flemish
French
English
German

Overviews

Spatial extent

Provided by

Access to the catalogue

Read here the full details and access to the data.

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