Koninklijk Belgisch Instituut voor Natuurwetenschappen, Operationeel Directoraat Natuurlijke Omgeving

The Management Unit of the North Sea and Scheldt Estuary Mathematical Models (MUMM) was established in 1976. In 1988 MUMM moved its offices to Gulledelle. Until 1997, MUMM was part of the IHE. In 1997, MUMM became a department of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS). In 2013, RBINS changed its internal structure and the Operational Directorate Natural Environment (ODNATURE) was established, covering ia. the researchers of MUMM with its offices located at Gulledelle.

The staff of OD Nature at Gulledelle is responsible for marine environmental protection and resource assessment. Its main tasks are: 

• The monitoring of temporal and spatial trends in the North Sea environment through surveillance programmes, also including aerial surveillance (CNUE); 
• The management of marine environmental data; 
• The management of the Belgian oceanographic research vessel (RV Belgica); 
• The management of the State environmental protection activities related to the sea, MUMM is responsible for implementing national and international legislation pertaining to the protection of the marine environment e.g. the Oslo and Paris Convention for the prevention of the pollution of the sea, and for coordinating work pertaining to the North Sea Conferences; 
• The study of marine processes, marine resource management and marine pollution, using mathematical models as a tool.