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