Citizen science observations from the former sand quarry (NGZG) by NATUBRABZB in Flanders, Belgium

This inventory is particularly valuable because it brings together local field experience and scientific expertise. Contributors may include certified nature guides (natuurgidsen), local observers, researchers, and professors with expertise in forest ecology, landscape ecology, and nature management, including experts affiliated with KU Leuven. Their combined contributions help document the site’s current ecological value and provide a scientific basis for its long-term conservation, continuity, and potential future protection.The dataset contains observations from a wide range of taxonomic groups, including plants, moths, mammals, birds, beetles, fungi, other arthropods, butterflies, bees, wasps and ants, reptiles and amphibians, true bugs, aphids and cicadas, mosses and lichens, flies and gnats, molluscs, grasshoppers and crickets, dragonflies, other insects, and other invertebrates.The history of the former sand quarry and landfill has become part of the site’s ecological identity.

Today, the area is developing into a resilient open space in which native habitats and biodiversity recover and thrive. Most of the data was collected in the Obsidentify and Waarnemingen.be app and then exported, mapped to Darwin Core and published.