Habitat mapping services
Habitat mapping services provide valuable information about the status of ecosystems,
either assessing the actual biodiversity or predicting the potential biodiversity in a given
spot. This information is of paramount importance to guide restoration efforts and
monitor their impact. LifeWatch has developed several modelling tools to map biotopes
and species habitats, and distributes the results in its WebGIS services.
Ecotopes & ecopatches
LifeWatch has designed a geographic datacube based on irregular polygons to support
various modelling and mapping purposes. These datacubes provide a flexible representation
of the land cover thanks to their quantitative field. In addition, they provide harmonised
information about soil properties, topography, climate, and spatial context. The datacubes
exist at two different scales: one for Belgium (the ecotopes, based on LifeWatch’s 2 m land
cover) and one for Europe (the ecopatches, based LifeWatch’s 10 m land cover). LifeWatch
provides a series of visualisation tools as well as a point-based extraction tool for quick
data access. Advanced users can of course also download the dataset directly.
Potential vegetation maps
The potential vegetation map is a model based on the environmental variables of the landscape to predict the type of vegetation that could be restored in a given place. This information helps to prioritise the type of ecological network that would bring optimal benefits to the overall biodiversity of the landscape. Combined with the actual land cover, it is also a valuable source of information for underlying species suitability models.
Species abundance maps
LifeWatch combines advanced models and curated species observation with its base layers to model species abundance. These models are indeed necessary to extrapolate local observation to regional scales. Currently, the results of these models are available for 80 bird species, 20 butterfly species and 35 plant species in the Walloon Region.
Antarctic environmental data portal
Bio-ORACLE marine modeling layers
Bio-ORACLE offers essential physical, chemical, biological and topographic data layers with global extent and uniform resolution for modelling the distribution of marine biodiversity. LifeWatch Belgium supports the tools and data infrastructure and web services to access these data layers.
Relevant news
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First ETN datasets available through GBIF 
First ETN datasets available through GBIF
The first datasets from the Permanent Belgian Acoustic Receiver Network are now available via GBIF. Over 507,000 fish tracking records from Belgian waters offer new insights into species movement and biodiversity. -
Marine Regions hosts introductory meeting for renewed Editorial Community 
Marine Regions hosts introductory meeting for renewed Editorial Community
Renewed Editorial Community meets as part of Ocean Decade Project Action -
EurOBIS celebrates its 20th anniversary with a super-harvest! 
EurOBIS celebrates its 20th anniversary with a super-harvest!
Over its 20 years’ existence, EurOBIS formed alliances with European initiatives as a supporting infrastructure and network. Major milestones include EurOBIS serving as the data backbone of the European Marine Observations and Data Network Biology (EMODnet Biology) since 2009 and being part of the central Species Information Backbone of LifeWatch since 2014. -
Closing the WoRMS 15th anniversary celebrations with an opinion paper 
Closing the WoRMS 15th anniversary celebrations with an opinion paper
In follow-up of the 10th anniversary paper on WoRMS, the Data Management Team is proud to present a paper celebrating the 15th anniversary of WoRMS: "The World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) through the looking glass: insights from the Data Management Team in light of the crystal anniversary of WoRMS".