Mapping European Seabed Habitats, the MESH project as a case study Els Verfaillie & Vera Van Lancker Universiteit Gent, Renard Centre of Marine Geology Second BeNCoRe Conference: Geographic Information Systems in Coastal and Marine Research and Management 30 May Leuven

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

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

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 habitat maps & metadata  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 catalogue

standardisation of existing and new Belgian habitat mapping data and metadata Belgian GIS contribution to MESH (1)

Unique code of habitat map Scoring system Total score of habitat map Belgian GIS contribution to MESH (2)

Macoma balthicaAbra alba community Nephtys cirrosaOphelia limacinaMacoma balthica community Abra albaNephtys cirrosa community Ophelia limacina community Increasing silt-clay% Increasing (median) grain-size 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 % Case study 1: Belgian habitat maps (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 (2)

Habitat suitability maps of 4 macrobenthic communities (Degraer et al., 2008) Case study 1: Belgian habitat maps (3)

Translation of habitat suitability maps into EUNIS level 5 map Case study 1: Belgian habitat maps (4)

Case study 1: Belgian habitat maps (5) MESH webGIS: EUNIS map = Translated habitat map

Ds50 Silt-clay% Application of HABITAT model Same exercise for Southern North Sea (1)

FIRST TRIAL VERSION! Same exercise for Southern North Sea (2)

Case study 2: Marine landscapes Verfaillie et al. submitted Modelling of marine landscapes purely based on physical datasets

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.

Questions? Blue books available!