OTREMED & Med-IAMER
SDIMED is a web geoportal developed by the OTREMED project funded by the EU MED Programme, contributing to the general objective of enhancing the competiveness of the Mediterranean region. It focuses on various aspects of territorial characterization and socioeconomic development of the region, gathering data from various government bodies. SDIMED was further implemented by the Med-IAMER project, adding coastal and marine spatial information about indicators of drivers and pressures in the Mediterranean region. Med-IAMER input data come from a wide range of sources and they were collected, validated and integrated during the project. SDIMED is an informative tool allowing users to easily visualize a wide number of thematic maps, thus supporting decision making and spatial planning in the Mediterranean. It is an open source system and it can be freely accessed through the web.
Questions this practice may help answer
- Are there examples of (land and sea-based) spatial indicators useful for supporting integrated management of the Mediterranean region?
- How can spatial indicators be structured and displayed?
- What is the spatial distribution of major socio-economic drivers and environmental pressures of the Mediterranean Region?
- Which are the regions showing the highest cumulative pressures?
Implementation Context
SDIMED was initially developed within the OTREMED Project, aiming to provide a spatial planning tool supporting the improvement of competitiveness in the Mediterranean area. It was further implemented within the Med-IAMER project, adding specific coastal, marine and maritime spatial indicators of socio-economic drivers and environmental pressures.
Aspects / Objectives
SDIMED objectives are:
- To improve access to and integrated use of spatial data and information in the Mediterranean region;
- To support decision making and management of the Mediterranean territory;
- To promote multidisciplinary approaches to sustainable development;
- To enhance understanding of the benefits of geographic information.
Method
The geo-portal developed within the OTREMED project integrates datasets with a spatial component from various government bodies acting in the Mediterranean region. A wide ensemble of spatial indicators has been defined within the project for the territorial characterization of the Mediterranean space to enhance the competitiveness objective. In the same geoportal, indicators developed within the Med-IAMER project are included, concerning socioeconomic drivers and environmental pressures in the Mediterranean region. Input data come from a wide range of sources and were collected and processed within the Med-IAMER project.
The INSPIRE Directive was applied as a general framework and a spatial data infrastructure based on OGC services was been built to query and manage useful information. The used platform is open-source and it is completely integrated to display maps and data through a web application.
Main Outputs / Results
The SDIMED geoportal, in its current implementation, includes data from the OTREMED and Med-IAMER projects, focusing on different aspects of the Mediterranean space, and can be used to support decision making and spatial management.
Data provided by the OTREMED project (222 layers, structured in 11 folders) focus on several aspects of the land territory of the Mediterranean region, such as: coordination of land use between bordering regions, management of population concentration on coastlines, valorisation of the landscape, adaptation to both climate change effects and to the migratory flows coming from Southern Mediterranean areas, development and structuring of tourism.
Coastal, marine and maritime spatial information provided by the Med-IAMER project (33 layers, structured in 8 folders) focuses on the six major drivers which were identified during the project: climate change (e.g. marine and coastal pressure of climate change), fisheries and aquaculture (e.g. fishing pressure and aquaculture production), coastal and maritime tourism (e.g. number of marina moorings per km or number of beds in coastal areas), maritime transport (e.g. alert and accident and oil spill density) and coastal urbanization (degree of soil sealing). Med-IAMER section of SDIMED includes also indicators for Marine Protected Areas (marine protection by MPAs, management effort and legal protection) and one indicator of cumulative pressures. A brief description of each indicator is visible by placing the mouse on the name of the layer.
The SDIMED geoportal enables the users to operate several functions (some of them only for registered users) such as: data and metadata query, thematic maps viewing, editing of layer properties, displaying layer legend and feature information, zooming, export and printing maps.
Transferability
The system has an open architecture and can be therefore completed or improved through other free or proprietary systems. The geoportal uses the INSPIRE system to standardize information, which makes it easier to be transferable. Information included in the SDIMED geoportal can support spatial analysis at the basin or sub-basin scale.
Contact Person
SDIMED was developed within the OTREMED project coordinate by Murcia Region (Spain). A specific contact person is not available.
As far as Med-IAMER spatial indicators are concerned, the project coordinator can act as initial contact person:
Dania Abdul Malak
European Topic Centre at University of Malaga, ETC-UMA
E-mail: daniaabdulmalak
uma.es (daniaabdulmalak[at]uma[dot]es)
Responsible Entity
Murcia Region (Spain)
Costs / Funding Source
SDIMED was developed within the OTREMED project and further implemented through Med-IAMER. Both projects were co-financed by the MED Programme – European Territorial Cooperation 2007-2013: total budget of OTREMED project was 1,552,465 Euros; total budget of Med-IAMER project was 353,653.50 Euros.