Mapping European Seabed Habitats webGIS update
News of recent updates to the Mapping European Seabed Habitats (MESH) interactive mapping portal: www.searchMESH.net/webGIS. This portal allows you toview, query, search for and download seabed habitat data for the waters of Belgium*, France, Ireland, Netherlands*, Portugal (including Azores), Spain and UK. The webGIS works in conjunction with International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES) Spatial Facility, which contains a metadata catalogue that describes the mapping data.
Since 2011 the site has been funded by the European Regional Development Fund – Atlantic Area through the MESH Atlantic project and maintained by the UK’s Joint Nature Conservation Committee. The MESH Atlantic project has now come to an end and this update marks the final data update under this project. The major changes are listed below:
- Update to French, Irish, Spanish and Portuguese data in the composite EUNIS habitats layer (available to view and download)
- Addition of a full-coverage broad-scale physical EUNIS map for the MESH Atlantic project area (available to view and download)
Additional things to note:
- OSPAR threatened and/or declining habitat data for the northeast Atlantic will continue to be updated annually, with a new version due by February 2014
- Web Map Service (WMS): all data layers can be loaded into your desktop GIS without the need to download
- Future of the webGIS: funding for the functions of this webGIS will continue through the EMODnet Seabed Habitats project between 2014 and 2016, and will continue to be managed by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee. We will continue to keep you updated on the progress.
More details about how to use the webGIS are provided below for those who are interested. We hope that you continue to use and benefit from the data. If you have any questions or suggestions, please get in touch through info@searchMESH.net
MORE INFORMATION ON USAGE OF THE WEBGIS
HELP PAGE:
The webGIS help page is available in English, Portuguese and French
QUERY PAGE:
I recommend making use of the query page (either click on 'Build a query' on the webGIS entry page, or click on 'map query' in the top right of the mapping screen). Here you can filter the EUNIS maps based on a specific habitat type, and zoom to particular layers and regions. If you want to send someone a URL to the mapper showing a specific layer and region, you can select the relevant options on the query page, click 'Go to map -->' and then copy and paste the URL that is generated. E.g. this is the URL generated when you select 'Ireland' as the Zoom area, and 'A3 - infralittoral rock' as the EUNIS habitat to display:
WMS:
The address to use is:
METADATA:
MESH Atlantic metadata sits on the ICES GeoNetwork that was originally created for the ICES Working Group on Marine Habitat Mapping. You can search for metadata with links to the maps if you click on ‘Search metadata’ on the webGIS entry page, or you can go directly to the catalogue by clicking on ‘metadata catalogue’ in the top right of the mapping screen or go to http://geo.ices.dk/geonetwork. You can also get to the metadata for a specific map by right-clicking on the EUNIS habitat maps layer and selecting ‘view details’ in the pop-up. Unfortunately it is not currently possible to click on a link within the metadata catalogue that takes you back to the map.
