Underwater Atlas. Cartography of the Balearic Islands Posidonia Oceanica

The project

Posidonia is a well distributed and abundant species, yet it is also sensitive to anthropic pressures since there is a large human presence and use. Therefore, there is a need to regulate the activities that may affect it. In this sense, the Balearic Islands have pioneered the comprehensive regulation of this species and its habitat, when initiating the drafting of a decree-level legal standard to regulate uses.

These first steps have revealed the need for a detailed cartography of the distribution of the species, which gives information to users and notifies them of the tools required to comply with the standard. It is also important for defining planned user activities based on the availability of information on the distribution of the seagrass areas and their specific regulation.

This project, therefore, aims to complete the existing cartography of the Posidonia Oceanica, verify the validity and degree of reliability/integrity of this, create an app that allows users to know if they are in a permitted anchoring area or not, and make the project and its app more widely known.

The project involves five main actions:

1. Inventory, compilation and analysis of the existing cartography and other sources.

2. Mapping of the areas where there is no cartography or there is a lack of reliable data.

3. Verification of the validity and the degree of reliability/integrity of existing cartographies based on sampling at strategic points.

4. Creation of apps and tools regarding the entire Balearic Islands coastline that allow users to know if they are in a permitted anchoring zone or not.

5. Publication of the results