Use Cases

EMODnet meets Dr Thijs Lanckriet, Advisor at International Marine and Dredging Consultants (IMDC). International Marine and Dredging Consultants (IMDC) is a company that provides expert advice for the sustainable management and development of our natural waters for public authorities, engineering offices and contractors on a worldwide base. We offer services in several areas...

Wildsea Europe Route offers tourists access to routes connecting European coastal destinations that allow them to learn about marine wildlife and participate actively in conservation efforts; including the collection and propagation of marine biodiversity data. “Citizen science” activities such as these are increasingly being recognised as an important source of information with the potential to contribute to our knowledge of the sea and increase participants’ sense of responsibility and ownership of the marine environment.

Copepods are the most abundant members of the zooplankton family and the major source of food for many fish, whales and seabirds. Their importance to the global marine ecosystem cannot be overstated; both in the ocean food web and in the carbon cycle. Since the 1930s their abundance has been measured by the Continuous Plankton Recorder which is towed behind merchant ships and is one of the longest running biological monitoring programmes in the world.

Petroleum companies have complete information on their own offshore installations and authorities responsible for licensing them know what is in their own waters. But until recently, there has been no complete inventory of installations for any of Europe’s sea basins.

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.

Changes in coastal sea level caused by the combined effect of surface winds and air pressure have the potential to cause widespread coastal flooding, damage to infrastructure and loss of life.

The low-lying lands bordering the North Sea are particularly vulnerable as was seen most notably in the catastrophic events of 1953. It is expected that climate change will increase the frequency and severity of such events.