The Monitoring Network is named after the group of irregular sandbanks located in front of the western half of the Flemish coast. These sandbanks complicate navigation in that area. The Flemish Banks Monitoring Network consists of a monitoring network at sea, weather parks ashore, and a computer network in Oostende. The network at sea, consisting of measuring piles and wave measurement buoys, and the meteo parks ashore, are equipped with hydro-meteorological sensors. The central computer network gathers and processes the data and exchanges it with international monitoring networks, research institutes, universities etc.