Government/Public administration

The pan-European map presenting the distribution of modelled broad scale seabed habitats (EUSeaMap v2016) made available through the EMODnet Seabed Habitats project, was crucial in the assessment recently performed by ISPRA in collaboration with the European Environment Agency to compile information on the distribution of all  marine broad-scale habitats for the whole Western Mediterranean basin.

Non-indigenous species (NIS) introduced by human activities are organisms moved into new areas outside their natural range by, for example, transfer of ships’ ballast water, biofouling and aquaculture. The EMODnet biology data were used to assess the trends in new records of NIS introductions into the OSPAR Maritime Area...

The EMODnet Chemistry portal has tested the application of INSPIRE Data Specifications to model nutrient data (MSFD Criterion D5C1 “Nutrients concentrations in water”) in the Mediterranean Sea. The use case builds on the Technical Guidelines related to Environmental Monitoring Facilities (EMF) and Oceanographic Geographical Features (OF) themes and to the Observations and Measurement (O&M) data model and was developed in collaboration with the SeaDataCloud and MEDCIS projects. The exercise demonstrated the completeness of EMODnet Chemistry metadata with respect to INSPIRE requirements and the feasibility to map EMODnet to INSPIRE models.

EMODnet Seabed Habitats data enabled the mapping of potential disturbance to benthic habitats due to fishing in the north-east Atlantic. The assessment was part of the wider OSPAR Intermediate Assessment 2017, which evaluates the status of the marine environment of the North-East Atlantic.

Symphony is a tool used by the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management (SwAM) to assess the cumulative impact of human activity in Swedish waters. In this operation, EMODnet Geology and the Bathymetry portals provided with good knowledge of the distribution of geological substrate types.

The development of EMODnet standard classifications for the various categories of seabed substrate allowed a digital map layer covering Russian, Finnish and Estonian waters to contribute towards the Gulf of Finland assessment published in 2016. This was one of the most important outcomes of the Gulf of Finland Year arranged by the three countries in 2014.

The digital topographic map layers produced by EMODnet do not only show the depth of water, they also indicate where surveys are sparse and confidence in data is low. Extending this analysis for more distant waters requires collaboration with countries outside the EU who have similar programmes.