Habitat Mapping Extension

ABP Marine Environmental Research Limited (ABPmer) has been awarded a contract to support  HABMAP, a project set up to provide Habitat Mapping for Conservation and Management of the Southern Irish Sea. 

The work is the latest in a series of studies undertaken by ABPmer for HABMAP to support the development of sea bed habitat maps.  Key elements of the research include mapping the modelled outputs within a GIS framework; provision of expert knowledge to assist in verifying the model outputs in relation to the predicted spatial biotope occurrence and input to the final HABMAP report.

The original HABMAP project was undertaken by a number of partners including Countryside Council for Wales (CCW), Trinity College Dublin, National Museum Wales, University College Cork, Marine Institute (Ireland) and Cardiff University.  The main aim has been to develop a model that predicted seabed biotopes from sources of data that were collected on a relatively large scale.  The project is now being extended by CCW to generate maps that cover areas that are of strategic importance to Wales. 

Bill Cooper, Managing Director, said: “We are thrilled to continue to be involved in this very exciting project.  The habitat maps produced within the study will determine areas of potential sensitivity and conservation importance and will be of great use to decision makers. ABPmer has undertaken a number of projects, which have incorporated all elements of habitat mapping. Outside of HABMAP, predictive habitat mapping has also been undertaken as part of the Severn Estuary CHaMP, where the extent of designated habitat features have been predicted for epochs of 20, 50 and 100 years in response to morphological change. Similar habitat modelling has been undertaken in Chichester Harbour, the Humber Estuary, the Greater Thames CHAMP and the Bristol Channel.”

Enquiries:
Bill Cooper
Managing Director, ABPmer
Tel: 02380 711840

Tracey Hewett
ABPmer Communications
Tel: 02380 711840