Access to good-quality ecological, environmental, and socio-economic data is essential for effective Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) and the creation of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). Unfortunately, such data often do not exist, and when they do, they are spread across many different data platforms, repositories, and archives. To help MSP4BIO partners find and access the data they need for this complex project, VLIZ has created an app to quickly and easily view and filter the datasets, data platforms, and tools that we compiled.
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This handy tool contains a wide range of data required for science-driven Marine Spatial Planning and is now available for anyone to use via the “Publications” tab of the project’s website. The compilation is focused on the project’s six test sites, but also includes sea basin-, European-, and global-scale datasets. You can also quickly check the time period and spatial coverage of each dataset, and whether it is open access or must be requested.
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The data can be filtered by test site, MSP Data Framework cluster, topics relevant to the project, general data type, and accessibility. You can also use the search bar for more specific searches. The metadata of each dataset in the filtered table can be consulted by clicking on the row, and you can download the data by clicking on the name of the dataset. The original data compilation was used for analysing the availability of data by test site and topic, which anyone using our app can now do! Click here to access the app.
