Solution scenario for erosic bottlenecks — bottlenecks

The map with solution scenarios for erosic bottlenecks contains the data from the municipal erosion plans in Flanders, approved by the Region Development Department, environmental planning and projects of the Flemish Government. The data from these plans are proposals for measures to combat erosion which are considered useful. The inclusion of measures in these plans does not mean that the measures will actually be implemented. Since not all erosion-sensitive municipalities have an approved municipal erosion control plan, the map cannot be considered complete. It is estimated that around 120 municipalities in the Flemish Region are affected by water and processing erosion in at least part of their territory due to the combination of the sloping topography, the high soil loam content and agricultural practice with intensive arable farming. In Flanders, these municipalities are concentrated in an average of 30 kilometres in the south of the Region. In 2020, 117 municipalities will have an approved erosion plan. The municipal erosion plan consists of, on the one hand, the study of historical and environmental factors (the analysis of the preconditions), and on the other hand the identification of erosic bottlenecks together with a concept of solution consisting of a combination of source-oriented and symptom-oriented erosion control measures for each of the bottlenecks (the bottleneck analysis). A bottleneck is defined as the area that drains to a known erosion problem point. A bottleneck can cross the municipal border, since the boundary of a drainage area is determined by the topography and not by the municipal border. In principle, bottlenecks cannot overlap, unless an incorrect estimate of the flow area. This is sometimes the case for cross-border bottleneck areas, because the erosion plans are drawn up per municipality and independently of each other, possibly by different study agencies. These “errors” were noted in the evaluation of the erosion plans, but not modified in this map. The erosic bottleneck solution scenario map contains the uncorrected data from the approved erosion control plans. Comments made by the competent administration can be consulted in separate documents per area of plan. The plans submitted for approval were drawn up by several study agencies. For this map, the variety of naming and symbology of erosion measures was reduced to ten classes of measures, divided between point, line and plane measures. The data layer ‘plan areas’ contains the delimitation of the areas for which the municipalities have drawn up their municipal erosion plans.