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Country profile - (Belgium)
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more info
Content provider
- Organisation name
- NFP-Belgium
- Reporting country
- Belgium
- Organisation website
- Organisation website
- Contact link
- Contact link
- Last updated
- Dec 22, 2010
- Content license
- CC By 2.5
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Key message
Belgium became highly urbanised and densely populated
Figures
Figure 2: Evolution degree of surface impermeability Brussels and surroundings (1955-2006)
- Data source
- http://documentation.bruxellesenvironnement.be/documents/Plan_pluie_2008-2011_RIE_FR.PDF
- http://documentation.bruxellesenvironnement.be/documents/Plan_pluie_2008-2011_RIE_FR.PDF
Fullscreen image Original link
- Data sources
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Belgium has become highly urbanised and densely populated (2008: 349,4 inh/km2 overall, 455,7 for the Flemish Region, 205,2 for the Walloon Region, and 6496,9 for the Brussels-Capital Region), soil sealing increased and urban sprawl around major cities expanded. As a result, commuting (distance) increased. For instance, in the Brussels-Capital Region, about 53 % of the 680 000 employments are occupied by people living in the two other regions (2007).
More than 60 % of the commuters use their car to go to work.
Urbanisation results among others in increased soil sealing of the territory. This impermeability of soil has notable environmental impacts: reduced water provision for ‘phreatic water tables/surfaces’ and aquifers, restricted development of vegetation (which involves impacts on biodiversity, well-being, micro-climate) and increased flood risk.
The results of a study concerning the evolution of soil impermeability in and around the Brussels-Capital Region, based on spatial analysis and remote sensing, illustrates the magnitude of the phenomenon.
For Brussels and surroundings, the proportion of impermeable surfaces increased from 26 % in 1955 to 47 % in 2006.
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