Benthic Habitat Maps for Scottish Marine Areas Using Acoustic and Sample Data

Seabed habitat maps for the Firth of Forth and Wee Bankie to Gourdon areas were generated using a top-down rule-based approach. The project, led by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee, classified habitats to level 3 or 4 of the EUNIS system and level 2 or 3 of the MNCR classification. Each produced habitat map includes a confidence assessment and certainty of classification maps.

Use Cases

• Assessing habitat suitability for marine species based on the EUNIS and MNCR classification levels.
• Evaluating confidence in seabed habitat classifications for specific areas using the accompanying certainty maps.
• Supporting Marine Protected Area (MPA) planning and monitoring with detailed benthic habitat information.
• Integrating acoustic backscatter and bathymetry data with point sample data for habitat modeling.

Strengths

• Habitat classifications are linked to two established systems: the Marine Habitat Classification for Britain and Ireland (MNCR) and the corresponding EUNIS codes.
• Each habitat map includes a confidence assessment performed using the MESH confidence assessment method.
• Mapping utilized multiple data sources and techniques, including acoustic datasets, bathymetry, backscatter, and point sample data.

Limitations

• The level of habitat detail was restricted to specific levels of the EUNIS and MNCR classifications, limiting granularity.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for large-scale analyses.

Provenance

Source

Joint Nature Conservation Committee

Collection Method

Rule-based top-down habitat mapping using acoustic datasets, supplemented by bottom-up object-based analysis with supervised classification.

Time Range

2013

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-14 09:47:34.263001; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Firth of Forth and Wee Bankie to Gourdon areas in Scottish waters.