Western Regional Congress 2025: Catan's Compass
2025-03-17 14:00 - 2025-03-21 12:00 (Europe/Brussels) | De Hoge Rielen, Molenstraat 62, Kasterlee, 2460, Belgium
Introduction

Hello and welcome to the official web page of the Western Regional Congress 2025 hosted by EGEA Leuven and EGEA Brussels!

The strategic location of Flanders in Europe has resulted in the fact that it held the highest population in northwestern Europe for centuries. In Flanders a city is always in close proximity. This makes that people can live in the countryside and work in the city. This makes that the border between countryside and city becomes very fuzzy. Competition for land is very strong in Flanders, and in the last 50 years the spatial planning was unsatisfactory. This caused that ribbon development was able to appear. Primarly in the Campine area this phenomenon is very common. Therefore, it is very difficult to make efficient public transport and to connect natural areas. The negative consequences go however much futher than this. Flanders face many sustainable land use challenges. Protecting further hardening of the land will be key to maintain groundwater levels and prevent flooding, but legislation is often blocked in the Belgian Parliament.

Just like the boardgame Catan, land use is important in the real life as well, and the land uses of the past can have a great impact on the land use of the future. Together with our partners we, the WRC 2025 Orga Team, are happy to show European geographers what challenges keep Belgian geographers up at night.

When is the wrc?

Organised by:

Questions? Mail them to WRC2025@egea.eu or send us a chat on our instagram page

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Register Here! The Registration deadline is 17/12/2024 at 23:59

Excursions

🚢Excursion 1: Port of Antwerp and Antwerp city-centre

🧭Excursion 2: Abandoned Town of Doel & Geo-park Scheldedelta

🚲 Excursion 3: Hard Bike Excursion across the Campine Ridge

🏙️Excursion 4: Brussels Urban Development History and the Ferraris maps

Workshops

Apply to become a workshop leader by filling in this forms: WORKSHOP OPEN CALL FORM. PROLONGED DEADLINE AS LONG AS THERE ARE WORKSHOP LEADERS NEEDED. Be fast if you want a fixed spot at the WRC!

Some workshop ideas we had, but we would love to hear your ideas for Workshops as well:

A workshop learning how to use Python to model land use changes

How to interpret remote sensing data and how to produce land cover maps based on remote sensing data

A workshop exploring the unique soil properties of Belgium, learning about how sandy Belgian soils were modified in order to use them for agriculture

A workshop about the risks of flooding and how to address these issues. The floods in 2021 in Wallonia were a good example of Belgium’s poor river management. Dike-building at the seaside could also be interesting

A workshop about the urban planning or public transport challenges in Belgium because of it’s typical ribbon urban sprawl patterns

A workshop about how historic maps can be used as a scientific data source, especially the Belgian Ferrarismaps which are highly detailed land cover maps from the 18th century.

A workshop about the local economic development, especially local beers and fruits

A workshop about regional rural development, especially because of the LEADER+ program active in most Belgian rural areas.

Training/Skill session

Apply to become a Trainer/Skill session leader! This is a short training session for participants to follow to enhance certain life or organisational or other skills. If you would like to become a Trainer/ Skill session leader at the WRC you can register here via this forms: TRAINING/ SKILL SESSION LEADER REGISTRATION FORMS. PROLONGED DEADLINE AS LONG AS THERE ARE WORKSHOP LEADERS NEEDED. Be fast if you want a fixed spot at the WRC!

Leisure excursion

Hike – Herentals: The Capital of the Campine region
HerentalsExplore this lovely city which had a significant impact on the regional development of the Campine region.We will explore the historic city centre, the Begijnhof,the ‘lakenhal’ and a number of medieval churches.

Hike – Visit the regional landscape park Kleine & Grote Nete
The Regional Landscape ‘Kleine & Grote Nete” is the regional ecological management organisation in the Campine region. They have a wide array of experts and partners that work together to implement different constructive and sustainable projects. Their projects revolve around nurturing the region, safeguarding and improving biodiversity and nature. They also have projects focusing on recreation, leisure and heritage. This leisure excursion will walk through the regional landscape, which our accomodation is part of, and will show you a few of their amazing projects.

Easy Bike – Goat farm and the gnome-forest
On this leisure excursion, you’ll visit a nearby goat farm (yes normally you’ll be able to pet the goats). Afterwards, you’ll go for a short hike in the gnome-forest! 🙂

Mystery leisure excursion
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Accomodation

Previously a munition depot of the Belgian army, De Hoge Rielen has become one of the most famous youth centers in Belgium. Located in the heart of the Campine (Kempen) area, in the middle of a forested area, we’ll be bringing all-European vibrations to this quiet area. We have booked two buildings, adding up to 105 spots for participants in addition to the Orga Team. The rooms are mostly for 4 persons. The bathrooms are located on the corridor. We look forward to giving you the awesome congress experience in this wonderful accomodation.

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Program

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How to get there

TrainCar/CarpoolingBusCycling/HitchhikingPlane

Which station do I go to?

The quickest ways to get to Belgium are 1) Night trains: European NightJet goes from Prague and Berlin, or from Venice and Innsbruck. ÖBB has a night train from Vienna and München to Brussels 2) During the day, there are high speed trains arriving from all over Europe to Antwerp or Brussels. From both Antwerp and Brussels, there are direct trains to Tielen.

The station of Tielen is located around 20 minutes walking from the accommodation. In Tielen there are not a lot of opportunities to buy food for lunch on monday noon so if you have the time, you should do that in one of the bigger cities.

What is the best train fare for me?

In Belgium train tickets do not change their price based on how much on beforehand you buy them. Always try to buy your train ticket before you get on the train. If you buy them in the train you have to pay an extra 7 euros. You can buy tickets via the NMBS/SNCB app quite easily. Otherwise you can always buy them in the blue vending machines in every train station. Below you have our recommendations. Do some math to find out which type of ticket is more advantageous for you. If you’re not sure, you can always contact us through our instagram, LinkedIn or via e-mail (wrc2025@egea.eu) and we’ll gladly help you!

Solo traveller

If you are younger than 26 you should buy a Youth Ticket -26. This reduces the fare to €7,50 euros per journey. This applies between every pair of Belgian (and Luxemburg) train stations. This also only applies for one specific route, so if you want to do a city trip before going to the accommodation location, be sure to check whether or not the city is on route to the accommodation. It does not matter if you take a Belgian or Dutch train on the Belgian territory. This ticket however DOES NOT apply to any high speed firms or night trains. With an ICE ticket you are also not allowed to get onto Eurostar or the other way around.

It’s important to note: The Youth Ticket -26 is NOT always the cheaper option. Be sure to check the standard fare because for short journeys this might actually be cheaper than €7.5

Groups

Groups are recommended to buy a Youth Multi, which has 10 rides on it, not connected to a name. This can be bought at a train station for 62 euro or you can buy it directly from the NMBS/SNCB app for €60. The paper version you will have to fill in with a pen. The app version can be activated in the NMBS/SNCB app (and has to be activated multiple times depending on how many you are travelling with).

The Orga Team is also going to do a city tour of Leuven on Friday afternoon after the WRC. For this the transportation costs are not included in the price of the WRC.

Depending on your itinerary, it can be much cheaper to buy a domestic ticket in one of the neighboring countries until the last stop before crossing the border into Belgium (for example Aachen/ Lille). When you get in the last stop, it can be cheaper to buy a ticket for the short journey between the two border stops. Once in Belgium, you can use the Youth Pass or Youth Multi to get from the border town all the way to Tielen with just one ticket. This ticket is difficult to find online, therefore, I would buy it at the blue vending machine of the Belgian train company (SNCB/NMBS) in the foreign station.

Car

If you are visiting some cities in Belgium, a Low Emission Zone might apply, which means your car needs to be of a certain environmental standard. These LEZ are enforced in Ghent, Antwerp and Brussels. You can check if your car is allowed here: There are park and rides on the city margins.

Ghent

https://lez.stad.gent/en/flows/controleertoegang

Antwerp

https://lez.antwerpen.be/?taal=EN

Brussels

https://lez.brussels/mytax/en/

Carpoolsheet

In order to promote more sustainable ways of travel, we greatly encourage all participants coming by car with some seats left to register in the carpoolsheet. You can give your starting location and your route so people could be picked up along the way. This saves costs and is more sustainable then everyone driving alone. This is also a great way to meet people! The carpoolsheet will be communicated to the participants later on!

Bus

There are flixbus stations in Antwerp, Brussels and Turnhout. From Turnhout it makes more sense to take a bus instead of train to the accomodation. Belgian buses cost around 2 euros. In Flanders, you should buy tickets from DeLijn (yellow buses)

Cycling

Biking infrastructure is great in the Netherlands and Belgium so feel free to come by bike. You should bring a lock with you as well to safely store your bike during the WRC!

Hitchhiking

Hitchhiking is not common but can be done as well. Any clothes that show that you are a talkative youngster and sign that shows where you want to go will help to get you there in no time.

Plane

Whilst we do not support plane travel because of its high emissions, we do understand that for some people it is quite unrealistic to make the journey to the WRC by train, bus or car. Here are some tips to get to the accomodation quickly and cheaply.

Brussels Airport-Zaventem (BE)

If you fly to Brussels Airport Zaventem, you can take the train from Brussels Airport to Tielen with one change. Remember, you have to pay an Airport Tax of 6 euros if you take the train from and to the airport. If you really don’t have any money and you want to be extra cheap, you can walk or take the bus to another station. There you don’t have to pay an airport tax. The most convenient route is to just take the train from Brussel Airport. For more information about train fares, check the train section

Eindhoven Airport (NL)

This airport is located close to Eindhoven in the Netherlands. They have plenty of cheap flights from airlines like WizzAir and Ryanair. From Eindhoven, you can take the train from Eindhoven-Centraal to Breda, then to Antwerp-Berchem and from there to Tielen. You can get your tickets from this site: https://www.b-europe.com/EN (don’t forget to change your age to get youth discount!)

Charleroi Airport- Brussels South (BE)

This airport is NOT near Brussels at all, but it does have more cheaper flights. You get to Tielen the quickest way by taking the shuttle bus from the airport straight to Brussels-South station. In Brussel you can take a direct train to Tielen. Note: Check in which train station you arrive with the shuttle bus and if you can get a direct train to Tielen from there. For more information about train fares, check the train section.
