Riparian zones represent transitional areas occurring between land and freshwater ecosystems, characterised by distinctive hydrology, soil and biotic conditions and strongly influenced by the stream water. They provide a wide range of riparian functions (e.g. chemical filtration, flood control, bank stabilization, aquatic life and riparian wildlife support, etc.) and ecosystem services. The Riparian Zones products will support the objectives of several European legal acts and policy initiatives, such as the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020, the Habitats and Birds Directives and the Water Framework Directive. Two complementary product groups provide detailed information on the state and characteristics of riparian zones across Belgium: 1. Land Cover / Land Use (LCLU) 2. Green Linear Elements (GLE)

The European Urban Atlas provides reliable, inter-comparable, high-resolution land use and land cover data for 800 Functional Urban Area (FUA) for the 2012 reference year in EEA39 countries. This datasets contains the FUA for Belgium (Antwerpen, Brugge, Bruxelles_Brussel, Charleroi, Gent, Kortrijk, Leuven, Liege, Mons, Namur and Oostende).