Second BeNCoRe Conference: Geographic
Information Systems in Coastal and Marine
Research and Management
30 May 2008 - Leuven
Mapping European Seabed Habitats, the
MESH project as a case study
Els Verfaillie & Vera Van Lancker
Universiteit Gent, Renard Centre of Marine Geology
Content
Introduction on MESH: What? Aim? Actions?
Action 1: GIS habitat maps and metadata
Belgian GIS contribution to MESH
Case study 1: Belgian habitat suitability maps
and extension towards Southern North Sea
Case study 2: Marine landscapes
MESH follow-on strategy
What is MESH?
Development of a framework for
Mapping European Seabed Habitats
www.searchMESH.net
General aim
‘Establish a framework for mapping the marine
habitats of north-west Europe, through the
development of internationally agreed protocols and
guidelines for seabed habitat mapping, and the
generation of the first compiled marine habitat maps
for the north-west Europe Interreg IIIb area.’
6 MESH Actions
Action 1: GIS habitat maps & metadata
Action 2: Develop Standards & Protocols for
marine habitat mapping
Action 3: Testing protocols
Action 4: Predictive modelling
Action 5: Demonstrate applications of habitat
maps for spatial planning and environmental
management
Action 6: Communication and dissemination plan
GIS habitat maps & metadata
MESH has:
 Mobilised existing seabed habitat mapping data through a
searchable online Metadata Catalogue (ISO19115 compliant)
 Collated seabed mapping data to create unified seabed habitat maps
to be displayed on MESH webGIS with standard data exchange
formats (DEFs) for an efficient sharing of data
Correlated habitat maps with EUNIS (European
Nature Information System)
Assigned accuracy and confidence labels to habita
mapping data
Created a Habitat signature catalogue
www.searchMESH.net/metadata
www.searchMESH.net/webGIS
Habitat signature catalogue
www.rebent.org/mesh/signatures/
Belgian GIS contribution to MESH (1)
standardisation of existing and new Belgian habitat
mapping data and metadata
Belgian GIS contribution to MESH (2)
Scoring
system 0 - 3
Unique code
of habitat
map
Total score
of habitat
map
www.searchMESH.net
Case study 1: Belgian habitat maps (1)
Increasing (median) grain-size
macrobenthic
communities
(Van Hoey et
al., 2004):
Macoma balthica
community
Abra alba
community
Nephtys cirrosa
community
Increasing silt-clay%
HABITAT model (Degraer et al., 2008)
• Quantification relation macrobenthos versus
silt-clay% and median grain-size
• Multiple Discriminant Function Analysis
• Community dependent accuracy
67 – 88 %, average 77 %
Ophelia limacina
community
Case study 2: Belgian habitat maps (2)
Silt-clay%
(Verfaillie et al., 2006)
Median grain-size
Case study 1: Belgian habitat maps (3)
Habitat
suitability maps
of 4
macrobenthic
communities
(Degraer et al., 2008)
Case study 1: Belgian habitat maps (4)
Translation of
habitat
suitability maps
into EUNIS
level 5 map
Case study 1: Belgian habitat maps (5)
MESH webGIS: EUNIS map = Translated habitat map
Same exercise for Southern North
Sea (1)
Silt-clay%
Ds50
Same exercise for Southern North Sea (2)
FIRST
TRIAL
VERSION!
Case study 2: Marine landscapes
Modelling of marine
landscapes purely
based on physical
datasets
Verfaillie et al. submitted
www.searchMESH.net
MESH follow-on strategy (1)
Publication of MESH Guide / Blue Book
Collate, process and aggregate seabed maps into
standard formats and classifications
Development of DEFs for new habitat maps
Maintenance of MESH website and webGIS
MESH follow-on strategy (2)
Marine Strategy Directive – 11 December 2007
(included into the EU Marine Thematic Strategy)
‘good environmental status’ by 2021
overall aim of this strategy is to promote sustainable
use of the seas and to conserve marine
ecosystems against certain threats (e.g. loss of
habitats, degradation of biodiversity) and pressures
(e.g. physical degradation of habitat from dredging
and extraction of sand and gravel)
EC and EEA: ideas for a European atlas of the
Seas as contribution to the Marine Strategy,
harmonising habitat maps of NW Europe (MESH),
the Baltic Sea (Balance project) and the
Mediterranean Sea.
www.searchMESH.net
Questions?
Blue books
available!
www.searchMESH.net