The project will allow the entire natural space to be mapped and improve management in the face of the climate emergency
The draft of the Map of the marine habitats of Catalonialaunched to have a exhaustive knowledge of the seabed Catalan and thus be able to contribute to conserving the natural heritage, is advancing at a good pace. He 70% of the surface of the seabed, from Portbou (Alt Empordà) to L’Ampolla (Baix Ebre), is already ‘mapped’, as explained this week by the Conselleria d’Acció Climàtica.
The map, the most complete and extensive to date, began to be drawn up in 2021 with the aim of having it finished in three years, that is, this 2023. In the midst of the climate crisis, the document “will improve information on protected natural areas ” and with it will allow a “better management to act before the climate emergency“, planning a “sustainable” management of the uses and activities carried out in the marine environment. The idea is to ensure a good ecological state of the seabed and guarantee its future conservation. “When planning any infrastructure that has to pass along the Catalan coast, the information provided by the map must be taken into account”, they emphasize from Acció Climática.
In these three years they will have mapped more than 154,000 hectares of the entire Catalan coast, from the coastline to the -50 meter isobath.
In 2022, the technicians responsible for the geophysical campaign had already carried out the prospecting of 70% of the surface of the seabed and all the information collected has already been processed. This has been possible thanks to different data capture sensors that have been supplying the information to the computers located in the ship ‘headquarters’, where the preprocessing and validation is done. The final objective is, on the one hand, to determine the geomorphology of the bottom and, on the other, to determine the depth.
In addition, sediment sampling and images have been carried out from Portbou to Garraf, which are now being analyzed in the laboratory. All this is accompanied by filming that helps to identify the existing habitats.
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Looking ahead to 2023, the researchers will finish the habitat survey, analyze the information obtained and from there they will prepare the digital cartographic bases that make up the center of the project.
This project, which costs 3.7 million euros, 75% co-financed with the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund, is part of the natural heritage and biodiversity strategy of Catalonia 2030.