Introduction

The Council of Europe Landscape Convention promotes landscape protection, management and planning, and organises co-operation between the Parties. The treaty applies to the entire territory of the States, and presents landscapes as key element of individual and social well-being everywhere (Council of Europe, 2004).

In this landscape analysis, the scope is much narrower than the entire territory of Belgium. The focus lies on a landscape in Beersel, at the edge of Belgium’s capital, Brussels. A study area of just over 1 km² was delimited. This predominantly open and vegetated area is surrounded by high-density infrastructure, but still provides accessible green open space within cycling distance of the capital. The Zenne River meanders through the area, surrounded by pastures, croplands and forestry. Elevation also changes within the study area, with residential land use mainly occurring on higher ground.

The goal of this study is to identify and interpret the main elements of the landscape within four themes: orohydrography, land use, infrastructure and small landscape elements. Identification was based on repeated visits to the study area and the collection of more than 1,000 360-degree photos and videos, which were used to create an immersive landscape viewer. This enabled detailed desktop-based field mapping.

The mapped themes are used to define three small-scale landscape types, each with distinct features and properties. They also form the basis for analysing vertical relationships between landscape layers and horizontal relationships along a transect through the study area.