To properly design their policies and apply their directives (mainly Habitat and Marine Strategy) Member States and the European Commission alike are dramatically lacking information about the marine environment, of which seabed habitats are an integral part. Mesh-Atlantic wants to promote harmonised production and use of marine habitat maps covering the Atlantic Area. To reach this goal, it intends to adapt and enhance previous achievements to the area, hence bringing the region onto equal footing with northern Europe. The key outputs of the project are basically three different sets of maps made homogeneous across the area in the Eunis nature classification. These maps are primarily those which already exist, but need enhancement and harmonisation, detailed bespoke maps covering a limited set of Natura 2000 sites – with some transnational ones – as well as a broad-scale modelled map resulting from the assemblage of readily available data layers. All of these outputs will be freely accessible on an interactive web mapping system. By building and acquiring this knowledge, Mesh-Atlantic intends to serve the community at
large. Based on a multi-faceted communication plan, the project will be carried out in close collaboration with marine environment users, among them fishermen, conservationists and managers who act for sustainable use of marine space and resources.
