Observations.be - Non-native species occurrences in Wallonia, Belgium

Jean-Yves Paquet; Louis Bronne; Lien Reyserhove; Peter Desmet

doi:10.15468/p58ip1

Observations.be - Non-native species occurrences in Wallonia, Belgium

Citation

Paquet J, Bronne L, Reyserhove L, Desmet P (2025). Observations.be - Non-native species occurrences in Wallonia, Belgium. Version 1.58. Natagora. Occurrence dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/p58ip1 accessed via GBIF.org on 2025-10-13.

Description

Observations.be - Non-native species occurrences in Wallonia, Belgium is a species occurrence dataset published by Natagora. The dataset contains over 190,000 occurrences of animal, plant and fungal non-native species, recorded by volunteers (citizen scientists), mainly since 2008. The occurrences are derived from the database http://www.observations.be, an initiative from the nature conservation NGO Natagora (https://www.natagora.be) in collaboration with Stichting Natuurinformatie and Natuurpunt. Standardized information regarding the occurrence's sex, reproductiveCondition, behavior, occurrenceRemarks, and samplingProtocol is included as well. Issues with the dataset can be reported at https://github.com/trias-project/natagora-alien-occurrences

Generalized and/or withheld information: for some occurrences, location information is generalized to grid cells, as requested by the observer (usually to avoid disturbance or collecting). Observer name, toponyms, and photographs are not included in the published dataset, but are known in the source database.

We have released this dataset to the public domain under a Creative Commons Zero waiver. We would appreciate however, if you read and follow these norms for data use (https://www.natagora.be/donnees_naturalistes_usage) and provide a link to the original data set 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 provide more information or know how you have used the data, so please contact us via the contact information provided in the metadata or via biodata@natagora.be.

Sampling Description

Study Extent

See geographic coverage.

Sampling

The observations (species, date, location, observer) were recorded by volunteers (citizen scientists) at http://www.observations.be. The dataset is a mixture of presence-only data and checklists.

Quality Control

Recorded data are constantly verified by species group specialists (including professionals) taking collection specimens, the observer’s species knowledge, added photographs and known species list of locations into account. The validation procedure from observations.be consists of an interactive procedure in which observers can be asked for additional information by a team of validators, after which the validator manually adds a validation status. Records that are not manually validated are additionally checked by an automated validation procedure that takes into account the number of manually validated observations within a specified date and distance range. The validation status is indicated in the field identificationVerificationStatus, the link to the original record is in references.

Method steps

Not provided

Taxonomic Coverages

Plantae
common name: Plants rank: kingdom
Animalia
common name: Animals rank: kingdom
Fungi
common name: Fungi rank: kingdom

Geographic Coverages

Walloon Region. This region is located in the south of Belgium and covers an area of 16,844 km².

Bibliographic Citations

Vanderhoeven S, Adriaens T, Desmet P, Strubbe D, Backeljau T, Barbier Y, Brosens D, Cigar J, Coupremanne M, De Troch R, Eggermont H, Heughebaert A, Hostens K, Huybrechts P, Jacquemart A, Lens L, Monty A, Paquet J, Prévot C, Robertson T, Termonia P, Van De Kerchove R, Van Hoey G, Van Schaeybroeck B, Vercayie D, Verleye T, Welby S, Groom Q (2017) Tracking Invasive Alien Species (TrIAS): Building a data-driven framework to inform policy. Research Ideas and outcomes 3: e13414. - https://doi.org/10.3897/rio.3.e13414

Contacts

Jean-Yves Paquet
originator
position: Head of Study Departement
Natagora
BE
email: jean-yves.paquet@natagora.be
homepage: https://www.natagora.be
userId: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2068-7976

Louis Bronne
originator
position: Database officer
Natagora
BE
email: louis.bronne@natagora.be
homepage: https://www.natagora.be
userId: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3396-184X

Lien Reyserhove
originator
Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO)
BE
email: lien.reyserhove@inbo.be
userId: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7484-9267

Peter Desmet
originator
Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO)
BE
userId: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8442-8025

Louis Bronne
metadata author
position: Database officer
Natagora
BE
email: louis.bronne@natagora.be
homepage: https://www.natagora.be
userId: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3396-184X

Jean-Yves Paquet
metadata author
position: Head of Study Departement
Natagora
BE
email: jean-yves.paquet@natagora.be
homepage: https://www.natagora.be
userId: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2068-7976

Lien Reyserhove
metadata author
position: Data Publisher
Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO)
BE
email: lien.reyserhove@inbo.be
userId: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7484-9267

Peter Desmet
metadata author
Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO)
BE
userId: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8442-8025

Louis Bronne
administrative point of contact
position: Database officer
Natagora
BE
email: louis.bronne@natagora.be
homepage: https://www.natagora.be
userId: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3396-184X