Global Map of Irrigation Areas
Belgium
The irrigable area of the country as reported by EUROSTAT for the years 1990, 1993, 1995, 1997, 2000 and 2003 varied between 17 880 ha (1990) and 35 110 ha (1997) [BE01]. The irrigable area was reported for two regions: Région de Bruxelles-Capitale/Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest and Vlaams Gewest in the northern part and Wallone in the Southern part of the country. Area equipped for irrigation was computed by selecting the maximum irrigable area for both of the regions during the period 1997 - 2003. The total area equipped for irrigation estimated that way is 35 170 ha, most of it located in the northern part of the country. The area equipped for irrigation per NUTS region is documented the table below.
Maps showing the location of irrigation schemes were not available. Area equipped for irrigation was distributed to cultivated land [BE02] in regions of coarse soil [BE03] using the following priorities:
| Attribute in Corine land cover 2000 data base |
Attributes in soil map * |
Priority |
Non-irrigated arable land (211) or complex
cultivation patterns (242) |
SLTXCL = 1 and SLTXCL2 = 1 |
6 |
Non-irrigated arable land (211) or complex
cultivation patterns (242) |
SLTXCL = 1 and SLTXCL2 > 1 |
5 |
| Fruit trees and berry plantations (222) or pastures (231) or land principally occupied by agriculture with significant areas of natural vegetation (243) |
SLTXCL = 1 and SLTXCL2 = 1 |
5 |
| *: SLTXCL represents the soil texture class of the main soil type while SLTXCL2 is the soil texture class of an associated soil; a soil texture
class of 1 is assigned to soils having less than 18% clay content and more
than 65% sand content. |
References
[BE01]: Statistical Office of the European Communities (EUROSTAT). 2006. Irrigation by regions. Online data base (available at http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu), 07/07/2006.
[BE02]: EEA. 2005. Corine land cover 2000 - vector by country (CLC2000), version 1. (available at: http://dataservice.eea.europa.eu/dataservice/metadetails.asp?id=667).
[BE03]: The Commission of the European Communities, Directorate General for Agriculture, Coordination of Agricultural Research. 1985. Soil Map of the European Communities at 1:1 000 000. The Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, ISBN 92-825-5427-9, L-2985 Luxembourg, 124 pages (modified version available in digital format as data set GNV153 at http://www.grid.unep.ch/data/, 07/07/2006).
Distribution of irrigated area in Belgium per NUTS-1 region:
| NUTS
region |
Irrigable area 1997 (ha) |
Irrigable area 2000 (ha) |
Irrigable area 2003 (ha) |
Area equipped for
irrigation on
the map (ha) |
Région
de Bruxelles-Capitale/
Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest, and
Vlaams Gewest |
32 030 |
29 460 |
19 020 |
32 030 |
| Wallone |
3 080 |
3 140 |
2 790 |
3 140 |
| Belgium,
total |
35 110 |
32 600 |
21 810 |
35 170 |
|
© FAO, NRL (2009) 
