Hypermapa is the Corporate instrument of the Generalitat of Catalonia to publish its georeferenced information from all over Catalonia, in an integrated and systematic way. It is here where you can consult the main cartography of environmental theme of the Autonomous Community, for example the habitat map of the seabed.
The Generalitat has recently presented the first habitat map of the seabed in Catalonia, which has identified up to 26 areas of this type, 4 of them of community interest, a pioneering project that wants to respond to the historical void of information in this area. The map of marine habitats have presented it in the port of Barcelona The Minister of Territory, Housing and Ecological Transition, Sílvia Paneque, and the General Secretary of Agriculture, Cristina Massot.
He New map, which can already be consulted on the Hypermapa’s website of the Generalitatoffers information on habitats and the type of seabed from the coastline to 50 meters deep throughout the Catalan coast.
Second the Paneque counselor, is drawn from a instrument that will allow planning and performing sustainable management of the uses and activities that are developed in the marine fieldand also includes the seabed elevation model and the batimetry.
Collect 26 habitats, 4 of which are of community interest
In total, The map identifies up to 26 marine fields of the Habitat Pattern Listof them four of community interest, and are distributed mainly in three major environments that occupy approximately 93 % of the prospected surface.
It is mainly sedimentary funds: sandy sludge and sludge, sandy sands and sands, and detritic funds, and the distribution of these habitats is different according to the coastal section. The third atmosphere in order of importance on the Catalan coast are biogenic detritic funds, which are a mixture of gravels, shot, sands and remains of equinoderms, calcareous algae and dúrcumas, among others.
Among the identified habitats, 4 have been found Community interest habitats corresponding to submerged and semi -submersed underwater caves, deltaic estuaries and mouthsrocky seabed and sublitorial biogenic concretions, and Prairies of Oceanic Posidonia.
Among them, the POSIDONIA PRADERAS (Oceanic posidonia), which are considered the most important ecosystems of the Mediterranean By extension and function, both at an ecological and economic level, in addition to being a crucial habitat that provides refuge to many marine species.
The map has allowed to know that they occupy a total of 4,582 ha, 2.4 % of the mapping surface (190,000 ha). Unlike sedimentary funds, rock funds, which are included among community interest habitatshave been detected more frequently in the northern part of the Catalan coast, although they represent a small percentage.
Map elaboration
Prepare and collect all the data included in the map have meant four years of worksince it has been necessary to perform prospects from the coastline to 50 meters deep throughout the Catalan coast, from Portbou (Girona) to the Ebro Delta (Tarragona).
In total, about 190,000 hectares have been covered, and for this, a Barco has carried out prospects from the seabed through different data acquisition sensors (Sounding side sweeps and multifaz probe) that in real time transmitted the data to the ship’s computers, where preprocessing and subsequent validation were made.
With the information collected determined the geomorphology of the background, as well as the depth or batimetry. At the same time, samples of the sediments have been taken and underwater filming have been made to identify existing habitats.
Of the less deep areas, from the 5 -meter level of the surface emerged to 10 meters deep, Lidar technology (laser imaging detection and ranging) has been used from a plane that flew over the coast to obtain very high resolution 3D data. Finally, in a last stage the analysis and integration of all the information collected in the different campaigns to obtain the cartographic bases that make up the map has been carried out.
In the Map elaboration have been invested 3.9 million eurosfinanced by 75 % through the European Maritime Fund and Fishing. The map of marine habitats is part of the Natural Heritage and Biodiversity Strategy of Catalonia 2030 and the Maritime Strategy of Catalonia 2030. EFE /ECOticias.com