Waterlands: Developing Management Indicators for Submerged Palaeoenvironmental Landscapes
- Reference:
- 09/P109
- Organisation:
- ABP Marine Environmental Research
- Amount Funded:
- £39,550
- Status:
- Current
'Waterlands' initially aims to collate, palaeoenvironment data
from core national heritage datasets, regional characterisations,
developer led surveys and research projects, into a central GIS
resource that records the known 'extents' of 'peats',
'submerged valleys', 'palaeochannels' and other palaeoenvironment
features from the UK Continental Shelf.
From this central resource, and in consultation with the project
steering group, empirical relationships between palaeoenvironment
deposits and environmental variables, including past sea-level
changes, will be identified and used to develop a data layer of the
potential 'extents' of palaeoenvironment deposits. A
qualitative assessment of the sensitivity of deposits (to human
activities and other threats such as erosion) combined with
information on the distribution of human marine activities will be
used to assess the 'vulnerability' (degree of exposure) of the
known and potential palaeoenvironment resource; this information
will be presented as data layers within the GIS.
This GIS analysis, in concert with steering group consultation,
will form the evidence base to propose and develop a suite of
UK-wide applicable management indicators for submerged
palaeoenvironment features. This will allow strategic consultation
and development of a framework to aid management of the
palaeoenvironmental record contained within the marine
environment.