BRABANT WALLON - Geography and history
The borders of Walloon Brabant coincide with those of the Nivelles arrondissement. Consisting of 27 municipalities, the province extends over an area of 1 091 km2 and in 2002 was home to 355 207 people. Bordered to the north by the Belgian region of Flanders, it opens on its southern side onto the provinces of Hainaut, Namur and Liège.
Walloon Brabant is at the heart of a natural region consisting of the low-lying plateaux of Belgium. It is crossed by three hydrographie systems: the valleys of the Senne and the Sennette in the west, the valley of the Dyle in the centre, and the valleys of the Grande Gette and the Petite Gette in the east.
The physical geography of the region is dominated by two features: firstly the incision of the plateaux by the major rivers and their tributaries, this becoming increasingly apparent towards the west, and secondly the plateaux themselves, which are very much in evidence on the southern fringe of the region but progressively less so towards the north.
Walloon Brabant is, like the rest of Belgium, influenced by maritime airstreams and thus has a mild, rainy climate.
Inequalities, but major development assets
Long considered a dormitory for Brussels, Walloon Brabant with its green countryside and wealthy suburbs has hitherto been the very image of a socially unequal region.
The wealthiest areas are south of Brussels, whereas the west, which has long been home to traditional industries (metalworking, electromechanical engineering, paper), and the east (agriculture) were more directly affected by the economic crisis, which caused unemployment to soar and the population to decline.
However, this situation is improving thanks to the progressive revitalization of the economy in the west of the province and the restructuring of the agricultural sector in the east.
Generally speaking, the area possesses a number of major assets that will help it redevelop:
proximity to Brussels and an international airport;
a network of international road and rail infrastructures;
a large and youthful population;
good higher education, particularly university;
good R&D potential thanks to the existence of two universities which have close links with the region's industry;
leading-edge sectors well-represented, e.g. chemical and pharmaceutical industries.
The two main challenges for the future of Walloon Brabant are the consolidation of its economic development and the preservation of its environment (which is not the least of its assets).
Walloon Brabant, land of contrasts
Walloon Brabant has six centres linked to major communication routes:
in the west, Tubize, which owed its development to the metalworking and textile industries, and which was badly affected by the upheavals of the 1970s. The revival of traditional activities (Clabecq), improvements to the road network (A8) and the prospect of an industrial zone being set up hold out promise for a better future;
Nivelles, the mainstays of whose industry is mechanical engineering, metalworking and the paper industry, is able to benefit from the Université libre de Bruxelles, which is located within the region and provides a link between industrial activity and research;
the municipalities in the south of Brussels between the E19 and E411 make an ideal base for international companies wishing to set up at this crossroads of Europe;
SMEs in the services sector opt for Wavre, which is equally well situated at the heart of an international communications network;
the setting up of the French-speaking wing of the Catholic University of Louvain at Louvain-la-Neuve in the early 1970s has created an increasingly dynamic centre of cooperation between university research and industrial development;
the south and east of the region are made up of municipalities that are essentially agricultural in nature.
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