MG43A:
Mapping the Oceans: Coordinating Seabed and Habitat Mapping for Maritime Spatial Planning I


Session ID#: 11351

Session Description:
Globally it is estimated that hydrographic maps are available for only 5% of the world’s oceans, even less of which have been mapped geologically or to identify benthic habitats. Recent international reports place a value of US$24 trillion on the raw economic value of the global oceans, two thirds of which rely directly on healthy ocean conditions. Maritime planning, sustainable use of marine resources, and forecasting all need good maps, which is now recognised by the growing number of national seabed mapping programmes and initiatives such as the Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance launched by the European Union,  the USA and Canada when these countries signed the ‘Galway Statement’. This session will investigate the scientific and technological progress in mapping the seabed, addressing bathymetric mapping, which improves the safety of navigation in our seas, geological mapping, which provides detailed knowledge of seabed/subseabed characteristics and identifies marine resources, and habitat mapping which provides essential information for food security and the protection of the most vulnerable seabed communities and ecosystems, to maintain healthy and biologically diverse oceans. The session will also address seabed mapping gaps and challenges as well as data management and access to data and information products.
Primary Chair:  Alan George Stevenson, British Geological Survey - BGS, Marine Geoscience, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Chairs:  Marco Weydert, European Commission, Brussels, Belgium and Thomas McKenzie Furey, Irish Marine Institute, Renville, Oranmore, Ireland
Moderators:  Alan Stevenson, British Geological Survey - BGS, Marine Geoscience, Edinburgh, United Kingdom and Thomas McKenzie Furey, Irish Marine Institute, Renville, Oranmore, Ireland
Student Paper Review Liaison:  Maria T Judge, Geological Survey of Ireland, Marine Geology, Dublin, Ireland
Index Terms:

1635 Oceans [GLOBAL CHANGE]
1912 Data management, preservation, rescue [INFORMATICS]
3045 Seafloor morphology, geology, and geophysics [MARINE GEOLOGY AND GEOPHYSICS]
3094 Instruments and techniques [MARINE GEOLOGY AND GEOPHYSICS]
Co-Sponsor(s):
  • HI - Human Use and Impacts
  • IS - Instrumentation & Sensing Technologies
  • ME - Marine Ecosystems
  • OD - Ocean Observing and Data Management

Abstracts Submitted to this Session:

Mapping the UK and European Seabed: Sharing Information to Deliver New Marine Geological Products. (91034)
Alan George Stevenson, British Geological Survey - BGS, Marine Geoscience, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Comparison of Sea Floor Character in Two Areas Mapped by the California Seafloor and Coastal Mapping Program. (90239)
Guy R Cochrane, USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center, Santa Cruz, CA, United States
Atlantic Plate Production Mechanisms over the last 120Ma: A Geological map of the Vema Fracture Zone Region (90789)
Colin William Devey1, Isobel A Yeo1, Nico Augustin1, Stefan Bredemeyer1, Meike Klischies1, Janna Köhler2, Dirk Metz3 and Dominik Pałgan1, (1)GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Kiel, Germany, (2)MARUM/Institute of Environmental Physics, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany, (3)University of Oxford, Dept. of Earth Sciences, Oxford, United Kingdom
Developing INFOMAR’s Seabed Mapping Data to Support a Sustainable Marine Economy (90963)
Maria T Judge, Geological Survey of Ireland, Marine Geology, Dublin, Ireland and Janine Guinan, INFOMAR, Geological Survey Ireland, Dublin, Ireland
MeshAtlantic – Mapping Atlantic Area Seabed Habitats For Better Marine Management (89559)
Fergal McGrath, INFOMAR, Marine Institute, Galway, Ireland
Multi-criteria Resource Mapping and its Relevance in the Assessment of Habitat Changes (93876)
Vera RM Van Lancker1, Lars Kint1 and Sytze van Heteren2, (1)Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS), OD Nature, Brussels, Belgium, (2)Geological Survey Netherlands, Utrecht, Netherlands
The Marine Geoscience Data System and the Global Multi-Resolution Topography Synthesis: Online Resources for Exploring Ocean Mapping Data (92795)
John J Morton1, Vicki Lynn Ferrini1, Suzanne M Carbotte2 and MGDS Team, (1)Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, Palisades, NY, United States, (2)Lamont-Doherty Earth Obs, Palisades, NY, United States