Geoportals unlock landscape history
On the regional geoportals Geopunt and MercatorNet, you can find maps that unlock the historical landscape, as represented by the 1969 and 1873 topographic maps published by the National Geographic Institute of Belgium, and the Ferraris maps (1778). Developed using AI, these maps show land use as polygons and hedgerows and tree rows as lines. The line maps have also been used to derive maps that show the densities of hedgerows and tree rows, and distinguish open, bocage, and coulisse landscapes.
Using these maps, you can calculate, for example, the area of heathland, woodland or grassland or the length of hedgerows and tree rows that were present at the three historical times. This makes it possible to analyse landscape changes and locate landscapes that remained intact over more than two centuries. This is very useful for the spatial implementation of biodiversity policy, for the conservation and restoration of landscapes with heritage value or the optimisation of ecosystem services. The historical land use mapping was a collaboration of INBO with the Agency for Agriculture and Fisheries, VITO and the Digital Flanders Agency. The mapping of hedgerows and tree rows was funded by the Flanders Heritage Agency. The reports on land use history and on the hedgerow and tree row mapping were published earlier this year.
Luc De Keersmaeker en Myrte Matthijs
The Geopunt geoportal reveals the historical evolution of land use (maps at the top) and hedgerows and tree rows (maps at the bottom). In this case, between 1778 (left), over 1873 (centre) and 1969 (right) heathland (purple) disappeared, first by afforestation (green), later by clearing as arable fields (yellow) and grassland (blue). Buildings and roads (red) increased sharply. Hedgerows (orange lines) declined, whereas tree rows (green lines) slightly increased.
Image above: Jeroen Mentens (Vildaphoto)
Read more:
- De Keersmaeker L., Roggemans P., Ghysels T., Poelmans L., Buskens I., Petermans T., Tallir S., Van Valckenborgh J.(2024). Digitalisatie van historisch landgebruik en analyse van landgebruiksveranderingen in Vlaanderen (1778-2022). Resultaten van deep learning (AI) beeldclassificatie toegepast op drie historische kaarten. Rapporten van het Instituut voor Natuur- en Bosonderzoek 2024 (16). Instituut voor Natuur- en Bosonderzoek, Brussel.
- De Vroey M., Roggemans P., De Keersmaeker L. (2024). Kartering van historische landschappen met houtkanten en bomenrijen. Rapporten van het Instituut voor Natuur- en Bosonderzoek 2024 (2). Instituut voor Natuur- en Bosonderzoek, Brussel.