GeoHab 2004 Agenda and Abstracts

Agenda

Abstracts

Evolution of a National Coastal and Marine Classification Standard

for the United States

Rebecca J. Allee

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Silver Spring, Maryland, USA

As evidenced by organizations such as GeoHab and ever expanding efforts throughout the world, habitat mapping and classification have become hot topics. This is true in part because resource management agencies now recognize that successful conservation, protection and restoration of valuable resources must be approached at an ecosystem level. Scientists across many disciplines have come to accept and now promote this concept. Management of single species simply will not provide the level of conservation these resources require to ensure sustainability or even continued existence. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) within the United States Department of Commerce recognized this some years ago after the U.S. Congress passed legislation mandating NOAA to conserve essential habitats of trust resources, and those habitats that support the food supply of those resources.

With the implementation of Essential Fish Habitat (EFH, defined as "those waters and substrate necessary to fish for spawning, breeding, feeding, or growth to maturity"), NOAA soon understood the dilemma the agency faced as information necessary to delineate EFH was simply not available. Taking a precautionary approach, the agency erred on the side of conserving too much habitat rather than risking oversight of potentially important habitats.

Following the philosophy of the National Gap Analysis Program for terrestrial habitats, NOAA began an initiative to develop a National coastal and marine habitat classification system in partnership with the Ecological Society of America. A synthesis of existing systems was compiled and, along with knowledge from expert habitat practitioners, the information was used to establish a starting point and critical habitat parameters for use in the habitat classification system were defined. This system would be the first step toward

establishing a geographically-based inventory of all coastal and marine habitats and their associated biological assemblages. The higher levels of this classification system address broad-scale parameters while the lowest level pulls in the biodiversity of a specific habitat type.

In the summer of 2000, the first product resulting from this initiative was released. The technical publication, “Marine and Estuarine Ecosystem and Habitat Classification”, presented the first National framework for a consistent classification system. Based on expert knowledge of habitat mapping and conservation practitioners, the report presented the concept of a quasi-hierarchical, descriptive classification system with 13 levels of organization (Table 1). Since the release of this report, the initiative has continued and the classification system continues to evolve into a user-friendly framework which considers past and on-going classification efforts. The current product is intended to allow existing systems compatibility while maintaining the integrity necessary to map and track all coastal and marine habitats on a National level allowing comparability among the rich diversity of habitats encompassed within the waters of the United States Exclusive Economic Zone.

During FY2002, NOAA Fisheries and NOAA Oceans and Coasts established a partnership with NatureServe, a non-profit conservation organization that provides scientific information and tools to help guide effective conservation action. While NatureServe was a new organization at that time, it was formed from what had been the scientific arm of The Nature Conservancy. Further, the principals at NatureServe had successfully established the National Vegetation Classification System, which is an FGDC-approved standard. The work begun in FY2002, built upon previous NOAA work to establish classification systems (most notably Allee et al. 2000) and NOAA’s efforts with the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation (NA CEC) to establish a classification system for coastal and marine ecosystems.

Marine Habitat Classification and Mapping Using Sidescan Sonar: Examples of Mapping Shallow Water Marine Habitats in Australia

A. Bickers and K. Baxter

Marine Science Group, School of Plant Biology,

University of Western Australia

A growing number of broad scale shallow water marine habitat mapping programs are currently underway or are planned in many states in Australia. Areas to be surveyed are typically chosen for a number of reasons:

•       Planned for developments such as harbours and channels, pipeline routes and offshore structures such as for the oil and gas industry.

•       Information required for resource management such as fisheries and marine aquaculture.

•       Special features and characteristics of coastal areas and their suitability as marine protected areas.

These programs use a variety of acoustic (multibeam, single beam and sidescan) and optical techniques (aerial and satellite photography) to gain broad scale coverage of coastal and continental shelf areas. Georeferenced video towed and diver or grab collection techniques are typically used to provide validation.

The Coastal Waters Habitat Mapping Project is part of the Coastal CRC (Cooperative Research Centre), an initiative funded by a combination of government, industry and universities. Together with its partner programmes this project will develop and apply technologies for the rapid and cost effective assessment of shallow water marine habitats around Australia and overseas. The initial three year phase will emphasise a series of five study sites selected to represent the wide range of coastal benthic marine ecosystems found in Australia.

Under the umbrella of the CRC, the University of Western Australia has undertaken a number of habitat mapping projects in Western Australia and New South Wales. In many of these projects, a broad scale, full or partial coverage map of the seabed is initially obtained using sidescan sonar. The sidescan mosaic is then segmented into acoustically distinct regions and boundaries between features that can be interpreted from satellite and aerial imagery are combined.

Representative samples of these regions, features and the boundaries between them are then validated by towed georeferenced video. This validation allows classification of the map produced from the segmented sidescan and optical imagery in terms of both the physical and biological characteristics of each region. It is common however to use the biological communities analysed from the video as surrogates for some of the habitat

types. From this map further fine scale work is targeted that may involve diver or grab collection or acquisition of bathymetry by multibeam systems.

Exploiting the wide swaths of sidescan sonar survey and a targeted ground truth regime has proved successful, popular and most importantly, cost effective in the efficient mapping of shallow water habitats. There are however a number of considerations in the production of maps using these techniques that would benefit from and are undergoing further research. Although these issues are closely related to each other, they can be listed under the following topics.

1. Habitat classification schemes and boundaries and how they relate to survey technique

Procedures used to classify habitats are directly related to the survey techniques applied.

Whilst the sidescan imagery allows the accurate mapping of boundaries between habitat types such as coarse and fine sediment, reef and seagrass, analysis of the video validation data allows further delineation of communities or physical attributes at a much finer scale. This matter must be addressed when producing a map representing the spatial extent of habitats and community types analysed from video data as continuous boundaries cannot be produced from its tracks. Combination of the video classification with broader scale data of another type such as bathymetric contours can however often sensibly delineate between habitat types. The example presented here concerns the rapid mapping of a marine park in NSW using such a composite of real (interpreted from aerial photography and sidescan sonar) and artificial (from video and bathymetry) boundaries between habitat types.

2. Classification of the sidescan image

Geometric and radiometric distortions inherent in the sidescan image can cause many difficulties in the segmentation of even the processed sidescan records. Here we investigate how boundaries between acoustically distinct areas can be produced either visually or automatically from the raw and processed sidescan images.

Whilst the need for a common classification scheme for shallow water marine habitats in Australia is clear, different survey techniques allow different types of habitats to be discriminated and a successful classification scheme should take this into consideration. This paper discusses the issues and limitations relating to mapping marine habitats in Australia using the techniques described above with reference to habitat mapping projects in Western Australia, Tasmania and New South Wales.

Marine Mining and Habitat: Issues for Western Canada

Barrie, J.V^1,2, Good, T.M.², and Conway, K.W.¹

1) Geological Survey of Canada – Pacific, British Columbia, Canada

2) University of Victoria, School of Earth and Ocean Sciences

Extraction of aggregates (sand and gravel) and marine minerals from the sea is increasing every year as on land sources are depleted or access is denied. For example, marine aggregate production in northern Europe is extensive with the majority of the UK’s sand and gravel consumption derived from marine sources. Similarly, marine mining for diamonds off the southwestern coast of Africa has become a billion dollar industry. The European aggregate extraction works under extensive site regulations that allow for monitoring of habitat loss or change while habitat damage due to the diamond extraction

off Africa is largely unmonitored. In North America regulatory regimes and constraints on seafloor dredging for aggregates varies by region and has in the past been largely unregulated, resulting in significant habitat damage, both physical loss of nearshore areas and overall change of the habitat.

On the Pacific coast of Canada dredging for commercial aggregate was carried out in the Prince Rupert area from the 1950’s until the early 1990’s, when activity was shut down for environmental and legal reasons. Evaluation of environment damage from past mining and the impact on habitat was carried out at selected sites where the greatest quantity of material was removed, varying from 70,000 dry metric tonnes (DMT) to about 4,000,000 DMT, based on royalty records. No impact assessment or environmental data are available for any of the sites prior to, during and, in most cases, for some years after extraction ceased. Recent research cruises by the Geological Survey of Canada collected sub-bottom profiles and sidescan sonar data for the largest extraction sites, but in general aggregate removal occurred in intertidal or shallow subtidal areas. Of these, several selected sites were examined using helicopter overflights and foot traverses at the annual lowest tide, and by using towed underwater video system (SIMS) deployed from a small vessel at high tide. Efforts were made to examine similar, undisturbed sites for comparison. Significant permanent physical damage was observed at several sites, including the removal of a tombolo and over-steepening of the foreshore resulting in beach erosion. Benthic habitats changed in response to the substrate change, however, overall change was minimal after 10 years of recovery.

Presently there is no terrestrial source of aggregate in the immediate area. There is, however, potential for significant future demand related to possible offshore oil and gas exploration and long-term shortages in southern British Columbia and the U.S.A. Offshore areas of Queen Charlotte Basin hold promise for future resources, but how such extraction will effect habitat is not clearly known. A large scale seafloor mapping program is now underway within the basin arising from the conflicts between the commercial fisheries, oil and gas exploration, marine wind farms, and offshore minerals. At present no specific guidelines exist in Canada for offshore mining and habitat protection. Suggested guidelines based on European experience and their applicability to the Pacific Coast of northern British Columbia are considered here along with recently adopted “Code for Environmental Management of Marine Mining” by the International

Marine Minerals Society.

Mapping seabed habitats in the Firth of Lorn,

west coast of Scotland: Evaluation and comparison of

biotope maps produced using the acoustic ground discrimination

system, RoxAnn, and sidescan sonar

Brown C.¹, Mitchell, A.², Service, M.², Limpenny, D.³, Robertson, M.⁴,

and Golding, N.⁵

1) Scottish Association for Marine Science

2) Department of Agricultural and Rural Development,

Northern Ireland

3) Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science

4) FRS Marine Laboratory

5) Joint Nature Conservation Committee

In recent years the application of acoustic mapping methodologies, in particular the use of acoustic ground discrimination systems (AGDS) used in conjunction with ground-truth sampling, has become common practice in monitoring and mapping seabed habitats at a number of Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) around the UK coastline. Whilst this approach offers advantages over more traditional style benthic grab surveys, the accuracy of the spatial distribution maps produced from such surveys has on occasions been questionable.

Previous investigations into the application of AGDS have gone some way to assess the benefits and limitations of such systems for continuous coverage seabed mapping. The findings from many of these previous studies were used to develop procedural guidelines for conducting AGDS surveys which are presented as part of the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) Marine Monitoring Handbook. However, as the number of research/contract groups undertaking broad-scale seabed mapping activities at various sites around the UK coastline increases it is essential to improve communication

between these groups and to further refine guidelines and recommendations on best practice for the production of full-coverage seabed biotope maps using AGDS. To address these issues a UK National Acoustic Ground Discrimination Workshop was hosted by the Scottish Association for Marine Science at Dunstaffnage Marine Laboratory in September 2003.

The workshop brought together a number of UK research/contract groups who use the AGDS, RoxAnn, for the production of biotope maps. The main aim was to critically evaluate this acoustic system for use in mapping seabed biotopes. A small test site on the west coast of Scotland, within the Firth of Lorn candidate SAC, encompassing a wide range of benthic habitats was chosen as the study site. The area was first surveyed using a sidescan sonar system and a mosaic of the output was produced covering 100% of the survey area. Interpretation of the mosaic identified three acoustically distinct seabed types, the spatial distributions of which were mapped. Four RoxAnn data sets were then collected over the same area of seabed applying different survey parameters (e.g. different survey grids, track spacing, survey vessels, survey speeds and RoxAnn systems). Extensive ground-truthing was carried out involving twenty-six drop-down video stations, and from these data six benthic classes (life-forms) were identified. Following interpolation of the RoxAnn track point data to produce full-spatial coverage data, these six life-form categories were used to conduct supervised classification of the RoxAnn data to produce full-coverage habitat maps of the area for each of the four RoxAnn data sets.

Comparisons between the four maximum likelihood classification maps produced from the four RoxAnn datasets was done using internal and external accuracy assessment techniques based on the video ground-truth data sets. These results revealed a moderate level of agreement in terms of the spatial distribution of the six habitat classes (lifeforms) identified within the study area between the four data sets. The ability of the RoxAnn system to identify discrete seabed features mapped using sidescan sonar was also tested. RoxAnn consistently overestimated the percentage of rocky reef habitat and

underestimated the percentage of mud habitat within the area compared to that measured by sidescan sonar. A number of recommendations relating to the use of AGDS for the production of continuous coverage maps and relating to the JNCC Marine Monitoring Handbook guidelines are proposed.

The MINCH project – the use of multibeam sonar and visual survey techniques to map cold water coral habitats in Scottish waters

Brown C.¹, Roberts, M.¹, Bates R.², Hancock, J.³, Harper, C.⁴,

Service, M.⁵, Mitchell, A.⁵, Long, D.⁶, and Wilson, C.⁶

1) Scottish Association for Marine Science

2) TOPAZ Environmental and Marine Ltd

3) Kongsberg-Simrad Ltd

4) Fathoms Ltd

5) Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Northern Ireland

6) British Geological Survey

The objective of the Mapping INshore Coral Habitats or MINCH project was to assess the current distribution and status of cold-water coral habitats to the east of the Island of Mingulay. Time and weather permitting, a series of additional areas were also to be examined on the Stanton Banks, in the Sound of Rum and to the west of Skye. The project was designed as a ‘demonstration project’ to show the effectiveness of wide-area environmental assessment using multibeam sonar as part of a habitat mapping exercise in the context of a project designed from both biological and geological perspectives. Before the survey, existing bathymetry and geology were reviewed to help guide the choice of survey areas.

Reefs formed by the cold-water coral Lophelia pertusa were identified in the surveys to the east of Mingulay where they formed characteristic seabed mounds. These mounds were clearly seen on the multibeam bathymetry and backscatter data records. The backscatter also revealed intriguing ‘trails’ extending downstream from some of these mounds. Their composition and cause are currently unknown. Preliminary analysis suggests that it may be possible to identify coral mounds of this type and size from bathymetry. However, future surveys must include sufficient seafloor inspection to ground-truth any such predictions. Video inspection of the seabed allowed a total of 16 different biotope types to be identified. Interpretation of the acoustic data in conjunction with the video ground-truthing allowed preliminary habitat maps to be produced.

Improving seafloor data acquisition, integration and visualisation: the AMASON (Advanced MApping with SONar and Video) project

Petillot Y.¹, Lebart, K.¹, Capus, C.¹, Coiras, E.¹, Lane, D.¹,

Tena Ruiz, I.¹, Banks, A.², Smith, C.², Grehan, A.³, Canals, M.⁴, Urgeles, R.4, Cardew, M.⁵, Jaffray, B.⁶, Wallace, J.⁷, Allais, A-G.⁸,

and Rigaud, V.⁸

1) Heriot-Watt University, UK

 2) IMBC, Greece

 3) National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland

 4) University of Barcelona, Spain

 5) System Technologies, UK

 6) Tritech International Ltd., UK

 7) Marine Informatics Ltd., Ireland

 8) IFREMER, France

Offshore mapping and seafloor imaging is a major requirement for scientific evaluation of coral carbonate mounds, trawling impacts and hazard assessment related to sediment stability, as well as ecosystem monitoring. AMASON provides this facility using small, commercial-off-the-shelf, sensors mounted on UUVs (Unmanned Underwater Vehicles) of opportunity.

The project has developed a modular system architecture, ensuring a scalable and reconfigurable system. The Data Acquisition System (DAS) interfaces with the sensors and stores the raw data in a GIS (Geographical Information System) environment. The DAS also interfaces with the Advanced Processing Algorithms (APA) module. The APA module provides rapid object and region characterisation, classification, mapping and mosaicing for large concurrent data sets from the video, small sidescan, parametric subbottom and multibeam bathymetric sonars. Fusion of feature and symbolic data is used to improve confidence in detected events of scientific interest.

The AMASON project has recently carried out its mid-term trials in Crete, Greece. The trials proved the reliability of the AMASON DAS developed by Marine Informatics Ltd. The DAS was used to gather the data from the AMASON sensor suite developed by System Technologies. The sensors and DAS were mounted on IMBC's Max Rover ROV which was deployed from IMBC's research vessel Philia in Heraklion bay. The data gathering trials took four days and a number of different missions were carried out. The multiple-sensor platform was carefully guided to best exploit the APA developed in Heriot-Watt University and in IFREMER. These algorithms help automate tasks normally carried out by scientists, such as assessment of trawling impact and monitoring of coral mounds and evidence of recent seafloor instability. In the final trials the post-processing will enter the mission planning loop, helping scientists make decisions based on the analysis of the most recently gathered data.

Website : www.ece.eps.hw.ac.uk/~amason

Distribution, abundance and habitat associations of demersal fishes determined from ROV video observations

on Heceta Bank, Oregon, USA

Clemons, J.E.R.¹, Wakefield, W.W.¹, Embley, R.W.², Tissot, B.N.³, Yoklavich, M.M.⁴, Hart, T.D.⁵, Merle, S.G.⁶,

Whitmire, C.E.¹, and Barss, W.H.⁷

1) NOAA NMFS Northwest Fisheries Science Center

2) NOAA OAR Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory

3) Program in Environmental Science,

Washington State University, Vancouver

4) NOAA NMFS, Southwest Fisheries Science Center,

Santa Cruz Laboratory

5) Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Oregon State University

6) Cooperative Institute for Marine Resources Studies,

Oregon State University

7) Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife

Fish, invertebrates and the lithology of Heceta Bank, Oregon, were mapped using the remotely-operated vehicle (ROV) ROPOS. Video observations from twenty-one ROV dives along line transects enabled the assessment of the populations of fishes, invertebrates and their habitats. Additional exploratory dives were used to ground-truth previously collected multibeam topography and backscatter imagery. From the video, it was seen that juvenile rockfish dominated the observed fish assemblages in rock ridge and boulder habitats with densities of ~1350 fish/ha, and cobble habitats were dominated by sharpchin rockfish (~2000 fish/ha). Fish densities in mud habitats were the lowest of all habitats that were explored, with flatfish (~400 fish/ha) and greenstriped rockfish (45 fish/ha) dominating assemblages in this habitat type. Heceta Bank, Oregon, has been a primary focus of groundfish habitat investigations since the late 1980s. The habitat associations, the distribution of habitat types, and habitat-specific abundances of the current study are compared with other fish-habitat studies along the West Coast of North America to identify generalities in the patterns of habitat utilization by demersal fishes.

Development of a framework for

Mapping European Seabed Habitats (MESH)

Connor, D.¹, and Coggan, R.²

1) Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC)

2) The Centre for Environment Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS)

JNCC will lead an EU Interreg-funded international marine habitat mapping programme entitled ‘Development of a framework for Mapping European Seabed Habitats’, or MESH for short, which will start in spring 2004 and last for 3 years (Initiation of the project is subject to finalisation of budget and contractual arrangements with Interreg IIIb North-West Europe Secretariat). MESH has twelve partners in the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium and France and aims to produce seabed habitat maps covering the marine waters of north-west Europe, together with the development of international standards for seabed mapping. Further details of the project are given below.

Duration

May 2003-April 2007 (including preparation phase)

Background

The seas around north-west Europe support an exceptionally wide range of seabed habitats and rich biodiversity. These provide important food resources (fish, shellfish), contribute to essential ecosystem functioning (such as nutrient recycling) and yield valuable natural resources (oil, gas, aggregates). In addition the seabed is subject to increasing pressures from new developments, such as for renewable energy (e.g. windfarms) and coastal developments for leisure activities and coastal defences.

These multiple uses bring ever-growing pressures on our seas and coasts, leading to increased risk of conflict between users and a greater potential for degradation of the marine environment and the essential physical, chemical and biological processes that maintain our marine ecosystem. We are responding to this challenge through recognition of the need for much improved integrated spatial planning for our seas (where traditionally planning has been very piecemeal or sectoral), as reflected by the new requirement for Strategic Environmental Assessments (SEAs) and issues raised recently within the developing EU Marine Strategy, by the OSPAR Commission and by Governments (e.g. the UK’s Marine Stewardship Report). Additionally there are new and increasing international commitments (from the EC Habitats Directive and OSPAR) to protect certain marine habitats, including through the designation of a network of marine protected areas, whilst the EC Water Framework Directive and OSPAR require periodic assessment of ecosystem health, including its seabed biological communities. The assessment of coastal sensitivity to oil spills is currently hampered by the lack of proper data on habitats, as has been shown by the recent Prestige case in France.

All this creates a substantial demand for information about intertidal and seabed habitats, but is set against a background of patchy, inconsistent and poorly collated information on their distribution, extent and quality. There are no national programmes in the north-west Europe region (except in France) which collate such information and the information which is available is difficult to access, making very poor use of data which are expensive to collect. The recent increase in demand, coupled with advances in remote sensing technologies over the past ten years, has led to a burgeoning of seabed mapping studies. These are undertaken using a variety of techniques, for a range of end needs (e.g. fisheries, commercial, nature conservation) and at various scales. The lack of international standards for these studies means the resulting data cannot readily be compared or aggregated and leads to an absence of regional, national and international perspectives on the seabed resource in spatial planning and decision-making.

MESH aims to address these key issues, as detailed below.

Geographic scope

The project will cover the sea areas mapped in blue. Boundaries are country EEZs (or equivalent), except France, where the southern boundary relates to southern limit of the Interreg North-West Europe area.

Key aims of MESH

MESH will address these issues in the following key ways:

•       It will compile available seabed habitat mapping information across north-west Europe and harmonise it according to European habitat classification schemes (the European Environment Agency’s EUNIS system and the EC Habitats Directive types) to provide the first seabed habitat maps for north-west Europe (see map).

•       Because the available information will be of variable quality and patchy in nature, habitat modelling will be developed to predict habitat distribution for unsampled areas, from the more widely available geophysical and hydrographic data. The final maps will be presented with confidence ratings so that end-users can determine their adequacy for their decision-making and future survey effort can be strategically directed.

•       A set of internationally agreed protocols and standards for habitat mapping will be developed, drawing upon best available expertise across Europe and elsewhere, to help ensure that future mapping programmes yield quality assured data that can be readily exchanged and aggregated to further improve the initial maps. The protocols will be tested through a range of field-testing scenarios involving transnational co-operation to ensure they are robust and the results repeatable.

•       Both the protocols and the habitat maps will be made available via state of the art Internet-based GIS (Geographical Information Systems), providing ready access to the information for a wide range of end-users at local, regional, national and international levels (e.g. spatial planners and managers; governments and other regulatory authorities, research institutions, educational establishments).

•       The wide spectrum of potential end-users will be engaged from the start of the project to better understand their end needs, to encourage the supply of relevant data and to encourage the improved use of the mapping information in spatial planning, management issues and for environmental protection. This network of stakeholders will be valuable in helping to forge strategies within each country for the maintenance and further improvement of the seabed maps beyond the end this three-year project.

A strong Partnership of highly skilled and experienced organisations has been developed to deliver this challenging project. The Partnership covers all five countries in the Interreg IIIb North-West Europe area, bringing with it a balanced mix of skills including scientific and technical habitat mapping skills, national data collation and management expertise and experience in the use of habitat mapping in management and regulatory frameworks. This blend of expertise from scientific/technical through to management and policy, with a focus on regional, national and international level delivery is felt to be essential to effectively deliver the required end products in a readily useable format.

Partnership

UK    Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC)

BE    University of Gent

FR    Ifremer

IRE   Marine Institute

NL    Alterra-Texel

NL    TNO Environment, Energy and Process Innovation

UK    Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS)

UK    Department for Agriculture and Rural Development, Northern Ireland (DARD)

UK    English Nature

UK    Envision Mapping Ltd

UK    National Museums and Galleries of Wales (NMGW)

UK    Natural Environment Research Council (British Geological Survey) (BGS)

Outputs from MESH

•       The first collated and harmonised map of seabed habitats for the north-west Europe INTERREG-IIIB Area, presented in a Geographical Information System (GIS) according to the European Environment Agency’s European EUNIS habitat classification system and the EC Habitats Directive types.

•       Accompanying confidence maps, indicating the quality of mapping information in relation to its accuracy and precision at different scales of resolution.

•       A meta-database of seabed mapping studies for north-west Europe, holding details on the location of each study, the mapping techniques employed and the range of data and end products generated.

•       The first large-scale evaluation of the practical application of the EEA’s EUNIS habitat classification and recommendations for its modification or improvement.

•       A set of internationally agreed protocols and standards for marine habitat mapping. This will include guidance on mapping strategies, standards for undertaking remote-sensing and ground-truthing surveys for intertidal and subtidal mapping using a variety of techniques, and protocols for data storage, interpretation and presentation.

•       A series of new mapping studies which test, evaluate and help improve the mapping protocols and standards.

•       Models for the prediction of habitat type, based on physical and hydrographic information within different habitat areas and water depths.

•       Case studies which demonstrate the political, economic and environmental use of marine habitat maps for spatial planning and management at local through international scales.

•       A web site providing wide access to the products of the project, including interactive GIS seabed maps for north-west Europe.

•       National networks of habitat mapping practitioners and end-users in management, regulatory and planning authorities.

•       A framework within each country for the continued collation and improvement of habitat maps at national level and their compilation and aggregation at an international level.

Habitat Mapping for Ocean Management on the

Western Canadian Continental Shelf

Conway, K.W.¹, Barrie, J.V.¹, Picard, K.¹, Hill, P.R.¹,

Yamanaka, L.², and Sinclair, A.²

1) Geological Survey of Canada – Pacific, Sidney, Canada

2) Department of Fisheries and Oceans – Nanaimo, Canada

Seabed habitat research at the Geological Survey of Canada - Pacific focuses on three issues: (I) rockfish habitat mapping in the Georgia Basin (GB); (ii) groundfish habitat studies in the Queen Charlotte Basin (QCB); and (iii) unique sponge reef habitats found in both areas. Many rockfish (Sebastes spp.) populations have been in decline in inshore and offshore areas of British Columbia. In response the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) has designated approximately 90 areas on the west coast as Rockfish Conservation Areas. Surficial geology maps, compiled from multibeam backscatter, geophysical and sample data, will provide a base which will be utilized to drape parameters, such as rockfish abundance, extracted from submersible and towed video surveys, onto the surficial geological units. Habitat maps will be compiled from these data sets to obtain better estimates of rockfish populations, and details of habitat usage by rockfish, regionally.

The groundfish trawl fishery in the QCB is a multispecies fishery targeting an assemblage of about 29 species. Seafloor mapping of six representative pilot study areas, of interest to DFO groundfish managers, has shown that there is a strong correlation between substrates and groundfish species assemblages. Rock sole were found over coarse sandy gravel units. A mixed species group of Pacific cod, English sole and Arrowtooth flounder (turbot) was found on sandy bottoms and Dover sole were on muddy bottom types. These results suggest that stock estimates could be improved by habitat mapping and that catches of various species could be made more predictable if fishing effort was targeted at selected habitats. High resolution mapping of these habitats will be enhanced by the collection of multibeam datasets in the future.

Globally unique sponge reefs in the QCB exist at 165 – 240 m depth within tidally influenced shelf troughs. The sponge reefs cover approximately 700 km² of seafloor with reef mounds to 21 m in height and provide a complex habitat for many species. Many of the sponge reefs have been damaged or destroyed by the groundfish trawl fishery. The four main sponge reef complexes have been closed to trawling and are being considered as target Marine Protected Areas (MPA’s) by DFO under Canada’s Oceans Act. The multibeam mapping of the known reef complexes will be completed this year, which will allow for the determination of the reef boundaries and facilitate the MPA process. In the Georgia Basin in southern British Columbia, much smaller sponge reefs of a few square kilometres in area have been identified from 100 - 200 m depth, which differ in several ways from the larger northern reef complexes. These reefs were found by analysis of multibeam data, suggesting that other small reefs will be found in the future in offshore BC waters as multibeam data are collected in other shelf areas.

Seabed Data Management in the GSI (Geological Survey of Ireland)

Archie Donovan

Geological Survey of Ireland, Beggars Bush,

Haddington Rd, Dublin 4, Ireland

The Irish government has given the Geological Survey of Ireland (GSI) the responsibility of carrying out this data gathering task funded by a
32 million budget over the period 1999 – 2005, within the Irish designated area. The initial survey plan was predicated on the assumption that a paper map final product was sufficient as a final deliverable. In line with this
127,000 was set aside in the initial estimate to finance the IT element of the project. In the first year of the project implementation this was revised to include a digital product capability. The IT element of the project financing was revised upwards to
1,270,000 to accommodate this new requirement. As GSI deals almost exclusively with spatially located information, GIS plays an increasingly important role in our work and is applied across the organisation, and as we deal with a variety of datasets and clients, a wide range of software is employed in the manipulation of data, including:

ESRI-ArcInfo, ArcView, ArcGIS, ArcIMS, Map Objects

MapInfo (Groundwater area and for Local Authority Clients)

AutoCad2000 (Digitising/GWPS)

Caris (Marine Data Manipulation)

Geosoft (Geophysical Data)

CODA (Marine Data Manipulation)

QTC (Marine Data Manipulation)

Fledermaus (3D Visualisation & Fly-Through)

Helical HHArchive (Seabed data database)

LizardTech-MrSID (Raster Handling & Compression)

The GSI’s largest project in terms of data volumes and cost is the Irish National Seabed Survey (INSS). Marine geophysical data, specifically multibeam sonar is processed using Questor Tangent’s QTC software to derive a categorisation of seabed type.

ArcIMS is being used to provide corporate wide access to spatial datasets as part of a major database re-engineering project being carried out in conjunction with the British Geological Survey and funded by the Information Society at the Department of the Taoiseach. This project has provided a new corporate data model, ISO Standard metadata for all GSI datasets and will deliver Cold Fusion screens for query and input of the data when migrated from Geodata to the new database dubbed CONOR (Centrally Organised Network of Records). The use of ArcIMS internally has led to a greater awareness of datasets within the organisation, increased interest in GIS and led to cost savings in terms of substituting desktop software with browser access for certain users. The current instance, which is a thin client, HTML service to avoid the need for Java plug-ins, is also acting as a test bed for what will be the most visible external facet of this project, a GSI web mapping site, it went live in QTR1 2003.

Figure 1. ArcIMS browser view of progress in relation to the INSS.

Figure 2. The integrated marine information infrastructure.

Two areas related to GIS use are still in development, both involving the handling of large datasets and file sizes.

The National Seabed Survey has generated a large dataset of geophysical data and to date produced a range of seafloor bathymetric maps for all of Ireland’s western deepwater area (>200m). The raw and processed data is currently stored, as generated, on a line and point basis, within a Hierarchical Storage Management System. Coverages of survey lines and points, both planned and shot, along with ground truth sampling points are created in ArcView/ArcInfo and posted to the internal ArcIMS web-mapping server. From these browser accessible maps, project progress is charted and querying of the survey data is used in project planning and derivative processes (Fig 1). Clients and partners require the data for spatial areas of interest and in formats they can handle or integrate into their GIS and ideally would like to access this data via the web. GSI are currently evaluating the possibilities of meeting this requirement by utilising Helical Software’s Self Defining Structure (SDS), possibly in conjunction with FME as a data format translator, based on the recommendations of a recent joint project with the Marine Institute (MI). Following on from this the MI is in beta testing stage of their web metadata catalogue. If the evaluation is successful other joint projects would then look at rolling out more solutions to interested parties, based on a marine data infrastructure (Fig 2).

Further information on any of the projects or datasets listed here can be got from our websites WWW.GSI.IE and WWW.GSISEABED.IE or from Archie Donovan Tel: 01-6782798, email: archiedonovan@gsi.ie.

This abstract is produced with the permission of the Director of the Geological Survey of Ireland.

Overview and status report on Seabed Survey together with spin-offs in terms of industry/research collaborations

Eibhlín Doyle

Geological Survey of Ireland, Beggars Bush,

Haddington Rd, Dublin 4, Ireland

The Irish National Seabed Survey is a seven-year project, which commenced in 1999. The survey area covers the Irish Economic Zone, an area of some 525,000 km². The area was divided into three zones defined by water depth, Zone 1: <50 m for, Zone 2: 50-200 m and Zone 3: >200 m. In the first three years of surveying was carried out over Zone 3. Work commenced on Zones 1 and 2 in 2002. Figure 1 shows the area.

Figure 1. Extent of data collection up to end 2003.

The data, which is being collected, consists of multibeam, gravity, magnetics, and subbottom data. In addition, groundtruthing, deep seismic surveys and airborne laser surveys have been undertaken. This significant dataset is now being utilized by industry, the environmental sector and interested research parties.

The utilisation of the data is being advanced by the Geological Survey of Ireland through agreements with industry, for example the development of a chart plotting system for the fishing industry. A number of research initiatives have commenced including the analysis of the multibeam waveforms, mapping of specific areas, evaluation of slope failure, cable routing analysis and habitat mapping. These studies will increase our knowledge of the Irish seabed area and enhance our reputation for scientific excellence in marine science.

Marine Geographic Information Systems and

High-Performance Computing Network

Declan Dunne

Coastal & Marine Resources Centre (Ionad Acmhainní Cósta is Mara) ERI, University College Cork

The recent increase in marine data volume acquisition has added to the large amount of existing data on Ireland’s offshore territory. These include bathymetric datasets as part of the Geological Survey of Ireland’s Seabed Survey, various marine-modelling activities, and data derived from associated physical, biological and chemical data collection projects that include satellite imagery. In this project the individual strengths of geographic Information System (GIS) and high-performance computing (HPC) are combined in an integrated approach to provide vital infrastructural support to many diverse marine research projects. The objective is to develop a system that will allow rapid modelling, manipulation and subsequent analysis, interrogation and visualisation of data. This project is a HEA PRTLI III funded research collaboration primarily between the Martin Ryan Institute (MRI), NUIG and the Coastal and Marine Resources Centre (CMRC), UCC, and is an active project in the Atlantic University Alliance.

This presentation will focus on one of the key components of the project, the research and development of an advanced 3D marine data visualisation tool that can be accessed via the Internet. The principle technologies utilised are Java, Java3D and VisAD (Visualization for Algorithm Development). VisAD is an open source Java component library for interactive visualisation and analysis of numerical data. Users can interact by zooming, panning, rotating, animating and data probing the various datasets selected to view. Users can also analyze this data using a suite of analytical and statistical tools. This marine visualisation tool brings together datasets from a number of different sources including the hydrodynamic model of Northeast Atlantic Ocean, the National Seabed Survey, atmospheric modelling, seabed imagery, ESRI shapefiles, and geo-referenced video.

The possibilities and limitations of habitat models

based on bathymetry

Erikstad, L.¹, Bakkestuen, V.¹, Bekkby, T.¹, Rinde, E.¹, Longva, O.²,

Sloreid, S-E.¹, and Christensen, O.²

1) Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA)

2) Geological Survey of Norway

Because of the variety in water depth, terrain variation, sea-bed substrate, oceanography and weather conditions, the coastal zone of Norway has a great diversity of habitats and associated species. In Norway, extensive efforts have been put into developing a infrastructure for classifying habitat types.

To get a holistic understanding of ecosystems, processes and ecological functions, and predict the effects of activities, we need to get basic information on the habitats and the factors determining their distribution and abundance. Mapping marine habitats is complicated and costly, due to factor such as wind, waves, depth and lack of detailed data. Hence, we do not have as good information on habitat distribution in the marine environment as we have on land. We therefore need indicators based on available parameters. Several studies have documented that terrain structures (such as depth, slope etc.) and environmental factors (such as sea-bed substrate and degree of exposure) influence the distribution of habitats. Predictive models may therefore provide information on habitat distribution.

The projects presented here, aims to test the possibilities and limitations in the use of existing map data in modelling marine coastal habitats. They are concentrated in three test areas in south and southwest Norway and cover open coasts as well as more sheltered fjords and skerry areas. Terrain and wind exposure models are used in a GIS to get an impression of the geographical distribution on key parameters for marine habitats. The basic data source is topographical data showing the coastline, and a bathymetric data set in a regular grid with the resolution of 50m.

The habitat modelling is verified by site control, using underwater video equipment and data collection with high resolution side scan sonar instruments. This gives an opportunity to study effects of scale, both the scale in which different habitats occurs and the usability of bathymetric data input with different resolutions. The possibility of modelling habitats in Norway over large areas as a basis for practical management based on the principles of the EU water frame directive linked to the EUNIS (“European Nature Information System”) habitat classification system will be discussed.

The Irish National Seabed Survey – developing marine R&D capacity

Fiona Fitzpatrick

Marine Institute, Galway Technology Park, Parkmore, Galway, Ireland

Ireland is an island nation with approximately 7,500 kilometres of coastline, and a currently designated continental shelf (extending well beyond the 200 nautical mile EEZ some 1,200 kilometres westward into the Atlantic) that covers approximately 657,960 square kilometres of seafloor to depths of more than 4,500m. The Irish National Seabed Survey of Ireland has been underway since 1999 in which time, over 450,000 square kilometres of seabed has been mapped; making the project the largest EEZ mapping endeavour in the world. Since 2003, survey work has employed the Marine Institute vessel, the R.V. Celtic Explorer as the primary survey platform. This presentation gives an update on the 2003 activities on board the R.V. Celtic Explorer, discussing in particular the equipment payload, survey coverage, underway data sets and planned diversity and integration of ancillary projects. These projects seamlessly piggyback on the core data gathering; adding significant value to large scale EEZ mapping initiatives, with little compromise to the daily overground coverage. The data includes observations, oceanographic measurements, biological sampling and sediment analysis. The development, implementation and cost of these ancillary projects are also examined.

A biogeological view of the Belgica Mounds (Porcupine Seabight):

Synthesis of video surveying, TOBI sidescan sonar imagery

and microbathymetric mapping

Foubert, A.¹, Beck, T.², Huvenne, V.A.I.³, Wheeler, A.J.⁴,

Grehan, A.⁵, Opderbecke, J.⁶, de Haas, H.⁷,

Henriet, J.-P.¹, and Thiede, J.⁸

1) Renard Centre of Marine Geology, University Gent, Belgium

2) Institute of Paleontology, University of Erlangen/Nuremberg, Germany

3) Southampton Oceanography Centre, Southampton,

United Kingdom

4) Dept of Geology and Environmental Research Institute, University College Cork, Ireland

5) Martin Ryan Marine Science Institute, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland

6) IFREMER - Underwater Robotics, Navigation and Vision Department (RNV), La Seyne-sur-mer, France

7) NIOZ-Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Texel,

The Netherlands

8) Alfred-Wegener Institute of Polar and Marine Sciences, Bremerhaven, Germany

The Belgica Mound province is one of three provinces where carbonate mounds are associated with cold-water coral species in Porcupine Seabight, west of Ireland. Sidescan sonar imagery has been acquired during the TOBI survey covering the Belgica mound provinces (RV Pelagia cruise) with a 30 kHz sidescan sonar mounted on the TOBI vehicle. Building upon existing datasets, the RV Polarstern ARK XIX/3a cruise, deploying the robotic submersible VICTOR6000 (ROV), was undertaken in June 2003 to acquire (1) a reconnaissance video line over numerous steep-flanked Belgica mounds and (2) a microbathymetric grid (obtained with the multibeam system SIMRAD EM 2000 mounted on the ROV) over some little incipient mounds (‘Moira mounds’). Visual evidence for a strong hydrodynamic regime in the vicinity of the carbonate mounds is found. The interaction between currents and sedimentation seems to play an important role in mound growth and development.

The reconnaissance video survey over and between several mounds in the Belgica Mound province visualised different sedimentary seabed facies and structures, supporting the interpretation of current-related features and different seabed facies seen on the TOBI sidescan sonar imagery. The eastern ridge of aligned mounds, from Challenger Mound up to Poseidon Mound, revealed very little live coral cover, with asymmetrical drift accumulations burying the eastern sides of the mounds and sediment-clogged dead coral frameworks occurring at the western sides. Only Galway Mound, Thérèse Mound and a little mound in between the Galway Mound and the Poseidon Mound are covered with a high percentage of living coral. These mounds as well as the Moira Mounds occur in the western area of the Belgica Mounds that nowadays provides adequate conditions for rigorous coral growth. A clear increase of megafaunal concentrations and diversity of species on mounds with live coral coverage is noted.

A range of local current effects and local current intensifications are recognised between the mounds on the eastern ridge, expressed by the presence of washed-out dropstones and associated current marks. However, very few boulders show prolific growth of larger sessile animals such as gorgonians, antipatharians or corals (Madrepora oculata or Lophelia pertusa), which may be due to excessive current speeds. The overall image of the sedimentary pa