INBOVeg - Botanical inventory of a number of natural flooding areas in the Demer catchment in Flanders, Belgium

Sampling event Observation
Latest version published by Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO) on Aug 13, 2026 Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO)
Publication date:
13 August 2026
License:
CC-BY 4.0

Download the latest version of this resource data as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A) or the resource metadata as EML or RTF:

Data as a DwC-A file download 187 records in English (64 KB) - Update frequency: not planned
Metadata as an EML file download in English (13 KB)
Metadata as an RTF file download in English (11 KB)

Description

This dataset was gathered as part of at study detailing the vegetation found in two flooding zones near to the Demer waterbody in Flanders, Belgium. More details are given under 'project data' and 'sampling methods', but the most information is to be found in the original (Dutch) report cited (Butaye & Hermy, 1997).The vegetation data from this study has been stored in INBOVEG, the INBO vegetation record database (also part of the "Global Index of Vegetation-plot databases" and the "European Vegetation Archive"), and is being published here in its entirety. The GBIF dataset is the same as the data in INBOVeg. The relevant identification code is 'IV2013080209275885'.Full details of the sampling protocol, in Dutch, are given in the associated report: Butaye, J., Hermy, M. (1997). Botanische inventarisatie van een aantal overstromende natuurterreinen in het Demerbekken. IN-report, carried out by KULeuven on behalf of the Instutute of Nature Conservation, Brussels. All data was recorded by trained experts.Some of these datasets have been previously published on GBIF as part of the FLORABANK1 bulkdata publication (https://doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.12.2849) at either a 1 km² or a 4 km² scale, here they are published as specific locations (with 10m² uncertainty). No coordinate uncertainty was noted in the accompanying report, so 10m² is only an estimate, based on the size of the plots (9 m²). To allow anyone to use this dataset, we have released the data to the public domain under a Creative Commons Attribution waiver (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). We would appreciate, however, if you read and follow these norms for data use (http://www.inbo.be/en/norms-for-data-use) and provide a link to the original dataset whenever possible. If you use these data for a scientific paper, please cite the dataset following the applicable citation norms and/or consider us for co-authorship. We are always interested to know how you have used or visualised the data, or to provide additional information, so please contact us via the contact information provided in the metadata or via opendata@inbo.be.

Data Records

The data in this sampling event resource has been published as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A), which is a standardized format for sharing biodiversity data as a set of one or more data tables. The core data table contains 187 records.

1 extension data tables also exist. An extension record supplies extra information about a core record. The number of records in each extension data table is illustrated below.

Event (core)
187
Occurrence 
3256

This IPT archives the data and thus serves as the data repository. The data and resource metadata are available for download in the downloads section. The versions table lists other versions of the resource that have been made publicly available and allows tracking changes made to the resource over time.

Versions

The table below shows only published versions of the resource that are publicly accessible.

Rights

Researchers should respect the following rights statement:

The publisher and rights holder of this work is Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY 4.0) License.

GBIF Registration

This resource has been registered with GBIF, and assigned the following GBIF UUID: a701540c-b53b-4a08-9ec1-6cbf28bee5c8.  Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO) publishes this resource, and is itself registered in GBIF as a data publisher endorsed by Belgian Biodiversity Platform.

Keywords

Samplingevent; Observation; INBOVeg; INBO data; Demer; floodzone ecology; vegetation survey

Contacts

J Butaye
  • Originator
M Hermy
  • Originator ●
  • Point Of Contact
KUL
BE
Maria-Rose Eves Down
  • Metadata Provider
INBO
Brussel
BE

Geographic Coverage

Flanders, Belgium

Bounding Coordinates South West [50.867, 4.998], North East [50.977, 5.087]

Taxonomic Coverage

No Description available

Kingdom Plantae

Temporal Coverage

Start Date 1997-05-01

Project Data

As part of ongoing water management in Flemish valleys, the restoration of the various natural flooding mechanisms of alluvial rivers was being investigated. There was a lack of understanding of both the ecological effects of the flooding on such natural systems and the ecological needs of those areas. As it is difficult to study these questions due to ongoing (over)management of the water bodies and unpredictable flooding, certain areas which regularly flood were looked to for insights in the larger valley systems. In this project, a thorough botanical inventory was drawn up of two valley ecosystems which frequently flood in the Demerbekken (Demer brooks), which were planned to be (later) used as part of flood management after the study. The inventory also allows for further comparative studies down the line. A number of abiotic parameters were also recorded during this study (not presented in this publication).

Title IN/WH/96, Botanical inventory of a number of flooding nature areas in the Demer brooks. (Original: IN/WH/96 ‘Botanische inventarisatie van een aantal overstromende natuurterreinen in het Demerbekken’)
Funding This study was carried out by KULeuven on behalf of the Institute for Nature Conservation (Instituut voor Natuurbehoud), the previous name for the Research Institute for Nature and Forest, INBO (Instituut voor natuur- en bosonderzoek). This was funded by the Ministry of the Flemish Community (het Ministerie van de Vlaamse Gemeenschap).
Study Area Description The inventory was made in two study areas in the Demerbeek area - in 1996, 79 hectares in the flooding brook ‘Hoeleden op de Velp’ and in 1997, 74.9 hectares in the brooks of ‘Webbekom op de Demer’. The locations were recorded using GPS. The coordinate uncertainty was not noted, so an estimate of 10 m has been applied.
Design Description 187 surveys were carried out, 86 in Webbekom and 101 in Hoeleden. The plots were chosen to be representative of the total vegetative variation across both locations.

The personnel involved in the project:

J Buteye
  • Principal Investigator
M Hermy
  • Principal Investigator

Sampling Methods

Each plot was 3 x 3 m, within which all species were recorded along with an abundance/cover estimate (10 division Londo scale, see report by Butaye & Hermy, 1997).

Study Extent 187 surveys were carried out, 86 in Webbekom and 101 in Hoeleden (both in Flanders, Belgium). The plots were chosen to be representative of the total vegetative variation across both locations.
Quality Control All species identifications and cover/abundance estimates were carried out and recorded by trained experts.

Method step description:

  1. n/a

Bibliographic Citations

  1. Butaye, J., Hermy, M. (1997). Botanische inventarisatie van een aantal overstromende natuurterreinen in het Demerbekken. IN-report, carried out by KULeuven on behalf of the Instutute of Nature Conservation, Brussels.
  2. Londo, G. The decimal scale for releves of permanent quadrats. Vegetatio 33, 61–64 (1976). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00055300

Additional Metadata

Acknowledgements
Maintenance Description This project was carried out and completed some years ago, therefore no update to the data is expected.
Alternative Identifiers a701540c-b53b-4a08-9ec1-6cbf28bee5c8
https://ipt.inbo.be/resource?r=inboveg-overstroming-demer-1997