Annual Soil Sealing Map (Year BAK), 1 m resolution, 2016

The annual soil cover map (Year BAK) for Flanders at 1 m resolution indicates for each cell whether or not it is covered. The Annual BAK is available annually from 2013. The White Paper Space Policy Plan defines 'soil sealing' as the area of which the nature and/or condition of the soil surface has been altered by the application of artificial, (semi-) impermeable materials, resulting in the loss of essential ecosystem functions of the soil (housing, roads, other constructions, etc.). This definition is based on the one used by the European Commission for ‘soil sealing’: "the destruction or covering of soils by buildings, constructions and layers of completely or partly impermeable artificial material (asphalt, concrete, etc.). It is the most intense form of land take and is essentially an irreversible process. For this map, soil sealing is first predicted by a machine learning model based on the medium-scale winter air intakes of Flanders. This modelled soil sealing is then combined with vector information on water, buildings, roads and railways from the Large-Scale Reference File. For more details on the method used to draw up the JaarBAK, please refer to the technical report 'Annual soil sealing map Flanders' at https://archief.onderzoek.omgeving.vlaanderen.be/Onderzoek-3331558.