IMIS

The database is an initiative of "Flo.Wer", the Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO) and the National Botanic Garden of Belgium. Florabank aims at centralizing botanical distribution data gathered by both professional and amateur botanists and to make these data available to the benefit of nature conservation, policy and scientific research.
The occurrence data contained in Florabank1 are extracted from checklists, literature and herbarium specimen information. Of survey lists, the locality name (verbatimLocality), species name, observation date and IFBL square code - the grid system used for plant mapping in Belgium (Van Rompaey 1943) - are recorded. For records dating from the period 1972-2004 all pertinent botanical journals dealing with Belgian flora were systematically screened. Analysis of herbarium specimens in the collection of the National Botanic Garden of Belgium, the University of Ghent and the University of Liège provided interesting distribution knowledge concerning rare species, this information is also included in Florabank1.
The data recorded before 1972 is available through the Belgian GBIF node, not through Florabank1, to avoid duplication of information. A dedicated portal providing access to all currently published Belgian IFBL records is available here. All data in Florabank1 is georeferenced. Every record holds the decimal centroid coordinates of the IFBL square containing the observation. The uncertainty radius is the smallest circle possible covering the whole IFBL square, which can measure 1 km² or 4 km². Florabank is a work in progress and new occurrences are added as they become available; the dataset will be updated through GBIF on a regularly base.
Geographic coverage: Florabank deals with distribution data of the wild flora of Flanders and the Brussels Capital Region (Federal states of the Kingdom of Belgium). Florabank covers an area of 13.682 km². Flanders has a temperate maritime climate influenced by the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, with relatively moderate summers and mild winters. Flanders is the northern part of Belgium. The two main geographical regions of Flanders are the Yser basin, in the North-West and the central plain. Flanders is divided in 6 ecoregions (Dunes district; Kempens district; Loam district; River Maas; Polder district, Sand and Loam district). The Brussels Capital region is a small region (162 km²) surrounded Flanders and is entirely situated in the Loam district. The majority of this region is highly urbanized and only the southern part is occupied by a large beech forest.
Taxonomic coverage: The coverage of this database spans the Phylum Tracheophyta or vascular plants. The highest number of records are from the Magnoliopsida (76.48%) followed by Monocotyledones (20.92%), Filicopsida (1.44%), Sphenopsida (0.97%) Coniferopsida (0.13%) and Lycopsida (0.03%). Ginkgopsids are within the scope of Florabank, but do not occur within the geographical scope of the database.Sampling methods: The spatial coverage of the territory has evolved through time. The data from the period before 1939 pertains mostly to herbarium specimens and reflects only part of the vascular plant composition of the region. From 1939 onwards most observations are collected using a standardized protocol based on the methodology used for the Atlas of the flora of Belgium and Luxemburg (VAN ROMPAEY & DELVOSALLE 1972). The atlas area is covered by a grid of 4 x 4 Km squares, which is further subdivided into 1 x 1 Km squares. All species observed during a visit to a grid cell of 1 km² were recorded without distinguishing between common or rare species. In each 4 x 4 km square, more than one 1 km² squares were surveyed. The inventories dating from the period 1939-1971 fed the Atlas of the flora of Belgium and Luxemburg (VAN ROMPAEY & DELVOSALLE 1972) (figure 2), while those from 1972-2004 served to produce that by VAN LANDUYT et al. (2006) (figure 3). During the first period (figure 2) only one survey of 1km² in each grid of 4 x 4km was required, during the second period we attempted to obtain data from at least four 1 km² grids in each grid of 4x4 km. From 2005 onwards we continued to gather data using the same protocol.
Study extent: The purpose of the Florabank database is the aggregation of occurrences data gathered by volunteers and/or professional botanists in order to make the data available for nature conservation, policy and research.
Quality control: All records are validated.
The publication of this dataset was supported by the INBO as part of the Flemish contribution to LifeWatch.