BVMtool is a set of R scripts automating marine biological valuation calculations based on the biological valuation concept as developed by Derous et al. 2007 and described by Deneudt et al 2013. Based on a recommended format for data input, the script facilitates the calculation of a number of valuation questions that are commonly solved when observational data on species densities are available. The results of the valuation questions are summarized in final scores for each ecosystem component and can be combined with the final results obtained for other ecosystem components. Subzones can be defined as raster grid cells of a desired size or can be based on polygons of a habitat classification provided by the user. The script also offers the possibility to run a number of quality control procedures on the input data, including a taxonomic quality control using the web services built on the World Register of Marine Species.

A tool for Quality Controlling Darwin Core based datasets according to the EMODnet Biology guidelines. The tool performs a thorough QC on OBIS-env datasets and occurrence core datasets. It can use an IPT resource URL as input. Quality controlling a dataset is fundamental in order to ensure its appropriate usage. The EMODnetBiocheck R package is developed in the framework of the LifeWatch and EMODnet Biology projects, and managed by the EurOBIS (European Ocean Biodiversity Information System) Data Management Team at the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ). It helps users to Quality Control their (marine) biological datasets by performing a varied number of quality checks on both published and unpublished datasets. This R package also allows a thorough visual exploration of the dataset, while highlighting potential issues within the dataset. The R package can be used on: i) public IPT resources; ii) loaded data tables. The only requirement to use the R package is the existence of an Occurrence table in the dataset, although the analysis reaches its full potential using an IPT resource with OBIS-ENV data format (Core: "Event"; Extensions: "Occurrence" and "Extended Measurements or Facts").

The LifeWatch and EMODnet Biology QC Tool allows you to assess to what extend a dataset published on an IPT or a DwC-A file meets the EMODnet Biology Data Quality Criteria. This tool is based on the EMODnetBioCheck R package (https://github.com/EMODnet/EMODnetBiocheck) that was created using the obistools package (https://github.com/iobis/obistools) and it is available from the LifeWatch services at http://rshiny.lifewatch.be/BioCheck/. The Biocheck tool performs a detailed Quality Control on OBIS-env datasets and occurrence core dataset. It provides a way for a visual exploration of the dataset and highlights potential issues.

mregions provides access to the data from http://www.marineregions.org in R. It uses both the Marine Regions Gazetteer Web Services and the Marine Regions OGC Web Services. mregions can help in a variety of use cases: - visualize marine regions alone; - visualize marine regions with associated data paired with analysis; - use marine region geospatial boundaries to query data providers (e.g., OBIS: http://www.iobis.org); - Geocode: get geolocation data from place names; - reverse Geocode: get place names from geolocation data.

The SCAR Antarctic Biodiversity Portal (biodiversity.aq) is an international effort that seeks to increase our knowledge and understanding of Antarctic and Southern Ocean biodiversity. It is a community of researchers, data custodians and developers from around the world that supports the mobilization publication, retrieval and analysis of Antarctic and Southern Ocean biodiversity data in a free and open manner in line with the Antarctic treaty and the FAIR data Principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable). The main aim is to create an information ecosystem of various data bases, data systems, web services, tools, etc. that can be used by anyone with an interest in Antarctic and Southern Ocean biodiversity. Biodiversity.aq is an international initiative of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR). It finds it roots in the Census of Antarctic Marine Life and started in 2005. The central facilities are hosted by the Royal Belgian Institute for Natural sciences (RBINS, www.naturalsciences.be) and the Belgian Biodiversity Platform (BBPf, www.biodiversity.be).

Benthos Ecosystem Quality Index (BEQI). BEQI is a biological index that is used to assess the state of the benthos of coastal and transitional waters for the Water Framework Directive. Taking into consideration the large intrinsic variability of estuarine and coastal systems and the importance of ecosystem functioning within a water body, Ysebaert & Herman (2003) advocate a multilevel scale-dependent approach for the classification of the quality elements in coastal and transitional waters. The proposed multilevel approach consists of three levels: (1) level 1 - Ecosystem level; (2) level 2 - Habitat level; (3) level 3 - Community (within habitat) level. Where suitable input and reference data is provided, the tool will calculate Ecosystem quality scores and produce a list of species that are responsible for observed deviations from the reference state.

Linking biodiversity occurrence data to the physical and biotic environment provides a framework to formulate hypotheses about the ecological processes governing spatial and temporal patterns in biodiversity, which can be useful for marine ecosystem management and conservation. Bio-ORACLE offers a user-friendly solution to accomplish this task by providing 19 global geophysical, biotic and climate layers at a common spatial resolution (5 arcmin) and a uniform landmask.

The Marine Regions team at VLIZ provides access to several data products in common GIS formats such as geopackage, shapefile, geojson or kml. Some of these are developed by the Marine Regions team. For example, the Maritime Boundaries which include all the provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea; or the sea areas delimited in the document "Limits of Oceans & Seas, Special Publication No. 23" published by the IHO in 1953. When possible, Marine Regions also offers access to these products following the specifications of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), such as Web Feature Services (WFS), Web Map Services (WMS) or Catalogue Service for the Web (CSW). There is a wrapper in the R programming language for these services together with the Gazetteer webservices in the form of an R package: 'mregions', developed by the rOpenSci consortium and maintained by the Marine Regions team.

rgbif is an R package to search and retrieve data from the Global Biodiverity Information Facilty (GBIF). rgbif wraps R code around the GBIF API to allow you to talk to GBIF from R.

pydov is a Python package to query and download data from Databank Ondergrond Vlaanderen (DOV). It is hosted on GitHub and development is coordinated by Databank Ondergrond Vlaanderen (DOV). DOV aggregates data about soil, subsoil and groundwater of Flanders and makes them publicly available. Interactive and human-readable extraction and querying of the data is provided by a web application, whereas the focus of this package is to support machine-based extraction and conversion of the data.