Water surfaces — version 1.1

Watervlakken 1.1 is an inferred digital file of stagnant surface waters in Flanders. The file, built up by combination of existing topographic chart layers, orthophoto images, the digital terrain model Flanders version II and to a limited extent fieldwork, comprises 88.713 polygons with a size between 1.5 m² and 2.46 km² and can be considered the most complete representation of still waters currently available for the Flemish territory. In this sense, it can be used for a wide range of applications in research, policy preparation and implementation, management planning and evaluation in which the diffusion and characteristics of stagnant waters play a role. ‘Water surfaces’ shall also provide a unique reference for the further data management of such water bodies. This new issue of water plains (1.1) used the orthophoto images of 2018 and 2019 and the digital terrain model Flanders. 1261 UTM lofts, accounting for 31.5 % of the Flemish Region, were systematically overhauled. Ad hoc reports from users and site observations were also used to digitise new water surfaces, make shape corrections and remove muted puddles from the map layer. For a number of water surfaces, water depth and connectivity data were included in the attributes table.