Inventories & CSI015 indicator:
Case study in Wallonia (BE)
EIONET soil Ad Hoc WG on contaminated sites and brownfields
Ispra – March 10-11th 2015
Esther GOIDTS
Soil Protection Direction
Soil & Waste Department
DG Agriculture, Natural Resources & Environment
Outline
1 – Context
2 – Available databases (registers)
3 – Inventory
4- Link with CSI015 indicator/management steps
5 – Conclusions
2
Context
Context of Wallonia
General
localisation
of Belgium
Administrative regions in charge
of environmental & agricultural
competences
3
Context
Landscapes and human activity
=> Human activities and industries have
mainly developped along the waterway
networks and the richness of the subsoil
(Sambre-and-Meuse riverline)
Long history of industrial activity
• XVIIIth : coal and metal (iron) mining
• XIXth : 2d industrial world power
Angleur - 1855 (CHST)
4
Context
Databases
2 – Available databases
5
Context
Databases
Sources of information (~registers)
1) Legal obligations
1967
• coal-producing site regulation
=> Coal-producing sites under rehabilitation
1978
• land planning decree
=> Economic wasteland, including brownfields
1985
• waste decree / environment code
=> Landfills, big activities / installations
1999
Numerical data
• protection at work regulation – gas station / environmental permit decree
=> Gas stations, all activities requiring environmental permit
2004
• revised land planning decree (management of soil pollution in economic wasteland)
=> Distinction between heavily polluted sites and lighter ones
2008
• soil decree
=> Potentially polluting activities/installations (annex III – 233)
Context
Databases
Sources of information (~registers)
1) Legal obligations
1967
1978
1985
1999
Old legal obligations
• unhealthy & dangerous
establishments regulation
=> Coal-producing sites under rehabilitation
=> The period from
1810 - 1947
the industrial
• cadastral law
• land planning decree
revolution of the
=> Economic wasteland, including brownfields
XIXth century to the
~1830 - today
• waste decree / environment code
+ one-shot cadastral 2d world war is the
major period for
plan around 1860
=> Landfills, big activities / installations
industrial activities
(POPP)
in Wallonia
1947 - 2002
• protection at work regulation – gas station / environmental permit decree
• coal-producing site regulation
=> Gas stations, all activities requiring environmental permit
• revised land planning decree (management of soil pollution in economic wasteland)
2004
=> Distinction between heavily polluted sites and lighter ones
• soil decree
2008
=> Potentially polluting activities/installations (annex III – 233)
7
Context
Databases
Sources of information (~registers)
2) Old topography maps
• Ferraris map
17701777
=> Not enough semantic details on installations/activities, although acurate
land use drawings
8
Context
Databases
Sources of information (~registers)
2) Old topography maps
17701777
• Ferraris map
18461854
• Vandermaelen map (VDM)
=>
Especially
focused
on
transportation networks (roads, rails
& waterways), buildings including
related activities, and not so much
on general land use or topography:
ideal for inventory purposes
9
Context
Databases
Sources of information (~registers)
3) Questionnaires to local authorities
2002
industrial wastelands
& landfills
2013
570 < area (ha) < 7350
250 < n < 2000 => mainly located in Hainaut & Liège
=> collecting informations + informing local authorities for their
access to means (tools and funds) and procedures to follow
10
provinces (west and eastern parts)
Context
Databases
Inventory
3 – Inventory
11
Context
Databases
Inventory
1 - Definition
Soil decree (2008)
Soil Status Database - SSDB
(~= « Inventory » in EU terminology)
« SSDB inventories, for each cadastral parcel and for non cadastral properties, the following
available data within administration: identity of real rights holder(s), data from (potentially)
polluted fields inventories, data from soil investigations, soil control certificates of
investigated or remediated fields and documents attesting conform remediation, references
of operating permissions and environmental permits of activities and installations potentially
polluting soils, references of remediation plans »
=> the inventory is made of several registers

SSDB is established progessively and managed by administration, and can be extended to other
informations by the government

SSDB access is ruled by the governement, without prejudice to public access to environmental
data, which especially organises direct access to obligations holders, public authorities,
acquisition comitees, notaries, soil experts and control organisms

Rectifications of SSDB can be asked by real rights holder(s) or by operators if necessary
SSDB use: administration judgement for permit delivery/cessation of activity/bankcruptcy, trigger for soil
investigations, information for sellers/purchasers through notaries, prioritization of sites remediation, ...
12
Context
Databases
Inventory
2 – method of implementation
1) Identification of databases (~registers) and their link with the inventory
• from legal obligations, maps, questionnaires, ...
• based on a common terminology (definition & list of PP activities from Soil Decree )
2) Assessment of their relevance and their quality, then integration process
• Exhaustive georeferenced DB (cadastral matrix, existing DB on polluted sites, ...)
• DB requiring pre-processing (environmental permits DB, historical maps/plan, ...)
• DB difficult to exploite ( no detailed georeferencing available, restricted access, ...)
=> DB need to be subject to integration which is caracterised by technical constraints, especially
spatial resolution issues (common spatial referential at the cadastral parcel level needed)
13
Context
Databases
Inventory
2 – method of implementation
3) Organisation of the inventory dynamic (consultations, modifications, updates)
• online cartographic interface and access filters (front office)
• updates (back office)
Users
Users
14
Context
Databases
Inventory
3 – Soil status database of Wallonia (under finalisation)
=> DB has the information at the cadastral parcel resolution as the inventory can be a trigger for
actions (investigations) on the site
Registers
Research tool
Parcel
location
details
15
Context
Databases
Inventory
3 – Soil status database of Wallonia (under finalisation)
Possibility to ask for a
modification/rectification
of informations
Status in the
inventory:
• in potentially
polluting activity
register?
• status in polluted
field register?
• administrative
data available?
• in soil control
certificate
register?
Sources of
information used to
determine the
status in the
inventory
16
Notaries, experts, …
Context
Databases
Inventory
4 – (Potentially) polluted « sites » before spatial integration (2013)
n sites
Legal framework / Driver
Starting date of
database
Potentially contaminated
Contaminated
low estimate
high estimate low estimate
Remediated
High estimate
Soil decree
5/12/2008
422
422
132
132
290
9
Environmental permit decree
11/3/1999
7391
7391
7391
7391
?
?
4/3/1999
1905
1905
514
514
1000
391
1985 - 26/6/1996
1156
1156
187
187
345
624
1978 - 27/11/1997
1897
4147
1342
3592
203
352
1846 - 1854
5694
5694
5694
5694
?
?
18.465
20.715
15.260
17.510
1838
1376
Protection at work – gas stations
Waste decree
Economic wasteland (brownfields
included) within land planning decree
Historical studies (Vandermaelen map –
CHST 2012)
Total
 the average density of potentially contaminated site is of 9 to 10 sites per 10 km² Spatial integration in
process to avoid
 between 1/8 and 2/3 of these sites were found contaminated after investigations redundancy of sites,
new spatial unit =
 almost half of those contaminated sites have been remediated
cadastral parcel
17
Context
Databases
Inventory
5 – Time needed and estimated development costs
Existing
decentralised
registers + 2002
questionnaire
Executive
decree
2008
2009
~1,5 M€ at total
Informatic management
system for Soil decree (from
2011, still running)
2010
2011
2012
~ 0,5 M€ at total
GIS development of
SSDB – phase I (from
2013, still running)
2013
2014
2015
Soil decree
Search of historical sites
and numerisation (from
2010, still running)
~ 1,2 M€ at total
Questionnaires from
local authorities (from
2013, under finalisation)
~ 1,2 M€ at total
2016: expected
public availability of
SSDB (need revision
of soil decree)

Starting point for establishing unique centralised DB = soil legal framework

Time to constitute SSDB itself 2 yrs, but at least 5 yrs for inventory activities

External cost for development of SSDB itself (~0,4 M€) lower than inventory of potentially
polluted sites phase, ie questionnaires and historical research since soil decree (>2,5 M€)
18
Context
Databases
Inventory
CSI015
4 – Link with CSI015 indicator
19
Context
Databases
Inventory
CSI015
Terminology
Soil Decree (2008)
Potentially polluted field
(~= « Potentially contaminated site » in EU terminology)
« Field where a soil pollution is suspected, especially because of the presence or existence in
the past of an activity or installation or wastes likely polluting soil, or because of the
knowledge of a particular accident, not yet confirmed by analyses »
Annex III listing activities and installations likely polluting soils (233)

soil: superficial layer of terrestrial crust, including groundwater and other present elements and organisms

pollution: presence on or in soil of pollutants detrimental or potentially detrimental, directly or indirectly
to soil quality
Norms based on risk assessment (Threshold value < polluted)
contamination (fr) = presence of pollutants not necessarly detrimental to soil quality

pollutant: product, preparation, substance, chemical compound, organism, or microorganism likely being
responsible of a pollution
20
Context
Databases
Field vs site
Potentially polluted field

Inventory
CSI015
Terminology
(~= « Potentially contaminated site » in EU terminology)
field: soil, delimited by a part, or one or several cadastral parcels, including
buildings and installations incorporated in soil, and subject to the soil study
Site (Wall) = area potentially impacted by a
polluted field (it includes the pollution source(s),
the transfer pathways and the receptors and
may be wider than the polluted field itself)
Spatial resolution issue
& perimeter definition
21
Context
Databases
Inventory
CSI015
Management steps of CSI015
(a) -site identification: « mapping of sites where potentially polluting activities have
taken place or are still in operation » (BE, LU, NL, FR)
list of potentially polluting activities (233)
 site = « point » (i.e. one administrative line/file – potential spatial redundancy)
site = perimeter (cadastral parcel, administrative field, « site »?)

-preliminary study: obj= deduce possibility of contamination and formulate H0
(nature/location/distribution of contamination), if necessary limited investigation to validate H0 (Austria,
Hungary, Norway)
For Wallonia, it's the first part of the preliminary investigation i.e. a desk study to identify
potentially polluted sites (without soil investigations) (B people)
(b) preliminary investigation: obj= confirm contamination
For Wallonia, check if sites are polluted compared to the norms (B people)

(c) main site investigation: obj= define extent & degree of contaminatinon, risks, need for
remediation measures
For Wallonia, detailed investigations including site-specific risk assessment to identify
« heavy threat » and to define remediation targets (A and B people)
(d) implementation of risk reduction measures
For A and B people: sites under remediation or after care measures

22
Context
Databases
Spatial mapping of the different
registers only based on
potentially polluting activities
(point -> perimeter)
Preliminary study = (Wall) sitespecific desk study without soil
analyses = first part of
preliminary investigation
Inventory
CSI015
Management steps of CSI015
No difference…
« Potentially polluted sites/parcels »…
Polluted sites or not
polluted sites (with or
without measures)
Study introduced but not completed yet
A study has been submitted
to the administration (legal
trigger)
Polluted sites with
further investigation
(extent & heavy threat)
Polluted sites with or
without remediation
Polluted sites whatever status of study needed (heavy
(a part presents heavy threat => threat/new pollution)
« contaminated »?)
Remediated sites (with or
without after care measures)
Heavy threat at least
removed by remediation
depend on the administrative status
classification of each relevant database
 the new structure suggested doesn’t exactly fit the situation, due to the
terminology and slight differences in step management
23
Context
Databases
Inventory
CSI015
4 – Conclusions
24
Conclusions
Context & terminology
Databases
Inventory (&registers)
Conclusions
various databases can be of high relevance for the inventory (from legal
obligations, topography maps, questionnaires, ...), therefore several
« registers » exist
=> however, they need to be integrated based on a common terminology and spatial
reference resolution (this might require pre-processing or excluding some databases)
 inventory is a main dynamic tool for polluted land management and is
triggered by soil legal obligations
=> for 2013 the number of potentially polluted sites in Wallonia ranges between 15.260
and 17.510 sites (~10 sites/10 km², half of identified PS are managed)
 Estimates will be revised when SSDB finalised (no more spatial redundancy)
 Time and cost needed especially for inventoring potentially polluted sites
 update of SSDB through various triggers
 inventory partially answers CSI015
=> terminology differs (site, pollution/contamination), first management steps differs
25
Context & terminology
Databases
Inventory (&registers)
Conclusions
Proposals JRC (feedback expected)
OK but no better

1. Request to use same format from 2011 exercice for next
results achieved at
reporting
EU scale
2. Keep monitoring of CS management by updating PCS, CS and OK
RS numbers and including national/regional informations
OK
3. Request to report the new PCS
4. Ask for some MS how they are monitoring the progress in CS
OK
management
5. Stepwise approach : description of criteria for CS and not
OK!
CS, best practices & method for these criteria,
development of guidance on best practices on CS
OK
6. Ask for policy targets
7. Find financial framework for cooperation
OK






26
Context & terminology
Databases
Inventory (&registers)
Conclusions
options (CF)?
– Option to limit scope to historical sites
– Option to better define the « site »
– Option to limit potentially polluting activities to list
Annexe II SFD
– Option to clarify link between management steps and
PCS / CS inventory (+ « EU thresholds »?)
27
28