Digimap Goes to Sea: new resource provides marine and coastal zone data
A major new online resource which makes available marine and coastal zone digital data was launched today. The maps anddata Marine Digimap delivers provide a fascinating insight into the broad range of factors that make up the marine and coastal environment and influence its exploitation.
The new resource, made available by Jisc Collections through EDINA’s Digimap platform, is very timely. The Marine Bill White Paper published last year and a forthcoming Climate Change Bill demonstrate the ever increasing concern over flooding and rising sea level which makes access to quality information about marine and coastal environments more important than ever.
Marine Digimap, from from SeaZone Solutions Ltd, includes raster marine maps of various scales and detail (derived from Admiralty Charts), which are ideal for back-drop mapping in the UK coastal zone, and Hydrospatial, a vector thematic marine data product
suitable for advanced spatial analysis and customised mapping. Users will be able to view maps through their web browser, save maps for printing and download the map data for use in geographical information systems.
The Hydrospatial product includes key geographical information on the UK marine and coastal zone environment provided as six logically structured Topic Layers. This includes data on: the nature and shape of the earth’s surface on land and under the sea; marine biological, physical and chemical features; man-made physical structures and obstructions; socio economic
information (for example, aquaculture, fisheries, and transportation routes); conservation areas and data on tides and currents.
The Digimap Collections enable research projects that would otherwise beJisc has made a considerable investment in digital map
data and the Digimap platform for a number of years now and has recently
added geological map data.
arduous, time consuming or even impossible by delivering the key base data
which form the foundation for research and teaching. Although, geology,
land-based (topographic) and marine data will be used separately by many,
research and teaching on the coastal zone, requires all these data. Tim
Riley of EDINA, who managed the development of Marine Digimap says, “we must
remember that the world doesn’t stop at the coast – the land and it geology
continues on under the sea, what we label “land” or “marine” features
interact in the coastal zone, they are not isolated. So it is really
significant that now OS MasterMap, SeaZone Hydrospatial and BGS geology data
are all available through the Digimap platform. And as work progresses to
bring these traditionally separate datasets into harmony, Digimap will pass
on these benefits to its users in higher and further education.”
Those with an interest in the coastal zone are many: engineers, archaeologists, planners, biologists, conservations, utilities, farming, business, sports and leisure, renewable energy and oil and gas industries – be they students, teachers, researchers or in industry or government.
The Jisc agreement that has made Marine Digimap possible follows a successful consultation with librarians and academics. One of those who responded to the consultation was Dr Simon Neill, who is a Research Lecturer in the School of Ocean Sciences, said: “As oceanographers, good bathymetry data is essential to our numerical modelling work. Vector data is also useful for presenting the results.”
Lorraine Estelle, CEO of Jisc Collections, said: “Academics, researchers and students across many different subject areas will find Marine Digimap immensely useful. Jisc has made a considerable investment in digital map data and the Digimap platform for a number of years now and has recently added geological map data. As the new marine and coastal zone maps are
available through Digimap, many users will already be familiar with the techniques and tools required to access the data. That means users can quickly start to use and understand the maps without a new learning curve or additional software.”
Dr Mike Osborne, Managing Director of SeaZone Solutions, comments: “Joining the Digimap portfolio will enable a wider range of users to access and benefit from SeaZone’s data. This is a key part of our strategy to drive marine and coastal management up the policy agenda and make SeaZone’s data a key resource for the future.”
Marine Digimap is available to all staff and students within a subscribing university, college or research council institution in the UK (via Athens authentication and the UK Access Management Federation). Institutions wanting access to the service will be required to pay an annual subscription fee.
For further information on Jisc Collections
For more general information on Marine Digimap, visit the EDINA Digimap