Mapping European Seabed Mapping European Seabed Habitats, the MESH project as a Habitats, the MESH project as a

case studycase study Els Verfaillie & Vera Van LanckerEls Verfaillie & Vera Van Lancker

Universiteit Gent, Renard Centre of Marine GeologyUniversiteit Gent, Renard Centre of Marine Geology

Second BeNCoRe Conference: Geographic Information Systems in Coastal and Marine Research and

Management

30 May 2008 - Leuven

ContentContent

Introduction on MESH: What? Aim? Actions?Action 1: GIS habitat maps and metadataBelgian GIS contribution to MESHCase study 1: Belgian habitat suitability maps and extension towards Southern North SeaCase study 2: Marine landscapesMESH follow-on strategy

www.searchMESH.net

What is MESH?What is MESH?

Development of a framework for Mapping European

Seabed Habitats

General aimGeneral 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 Actions6 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

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

GIS habitatGIS habitat maps maps && metadata metadata

www.searchMESH.net/metadatawww.searchMESH.net/webGIS

Correlated habitat maps with EUNIS (European Nature Information System)

Assigned accuracy and confidence labels to habitat mapping data

Created a Habitat signature catalogue

Habitat signature catalogueHabitat signature cataloguewww.rebent.org/mesh/signatures/

standardisation of existing and new Belgian habitat mapping data and metadata

Belgian GIS contribution to MESH Belgian GIS contribution to MESH (1)(1)

www.searchMESH.net

Unique code of habitat

map

Scoring system 0

- 3

Total score of habitat

map

Belgian GIS contribution to MESH Belgian GIS contribution to MESH (2)(2)

Macoma balthica Abra albacommunity

Nephtys cirrosa Ophelia limacinaMacoma balthicacommunity

Abra alba Nephtys cirrosacommunity

Ophelia limacinacommunity

Increasing silt-clay%

Increasing (median) grain-size

HABITAT model (Degraer et al., 2008)

• Quantification relation macrobenthos versussilt-clay% and median grain-size

• Multiple Discriminant Function Analysis• Community dependent accuracy

67 – 88 %, average 77 %

Case study 1: Belgian habitat maps Case study 1: Belgian habitat maps (1) (1)

macrobenthic communities (Van Hoey et al., 2004):

Silt-clay%

Median grain-size

Application of HABITAT model

(Verfaillie et al., 2006)

Case study 2: Belgian habitat maps Case study 2: Belgian habitat maps (2) (2)

Habitat suitability maps of 4 macrobenthic communities

(Degraer et al., 2008)

Case study 1: Belgian habitat maps Case study 1: Belgian habitat maps (3) (3)

Translation of habitat suitability maps into EUNIS level 5 map

Case study 1: Belgian habitat maps Case study 1: Belgian habitat maps (4) (4)

Case study 1: Belgian habitat maps Case study 1: Belgian habitat maps (5) (5)

MESH webGIS: EUNIS map = Translated habitat map

Ds50

Silt-clay% Application of HABITAT model

Same exercise for Same exercise for Southern North Sea (1)Southern North Sea (1)

FIRST TRIAL VERSION!

Same exercise for Southern North Sea Same exercise for Southern North Sea (2)(2)

www.searchMESH.net

Case study 2: Marine landscapesCase study 2: Marine landscapes

Verfaillie et al. submitted

Modelling of marine landscapes purely based on physical datasets

MESH follow-on MESH follow-on strategy (1)strategy (1)

Publication of MESH Guide / Blue BookCollate, process and aggregate seabed maps into standard formats and classificationsDevelopment of DEFs for new habitat mapsMaintenance of MESH website and webGIS

MESH follow-on MESH follow-on strategy (2)strategy (2)

Marine Strategy Directive – 11 December 2007 (included into the EU Marine Thematic Strategy) ‘good environmental status’ by 2021overall 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?

www.searchMESH.net

Blue books

available!