Session topics

1. Shelf and deep-sea habitats: This session will focus on deep-water methods, technological advances, and discussion of specific shelf and deep-sea habitats, as well as how their distribution and specific characteristics may play an important role at broader scales. Talks may include habitat mapping on the shelf and in the deep-sea for conservation and management purposes.
2. Coastal and shallow water habitats: This session will have a particular focus on linking methodologies from terrestrial remote sensing (including data collection by aerial drones) to shallow water environments. Talks may include habitat mapping in coastal and shallow water habitats for conservation and management purposes.
3. New approaches from coast to deep-water habitat mapping: This session will emphasize new technologies and approaches to tackle habitat mapping independently of operational spatial scale. Talks may include experiments, projects and practical experience enable to disclose dissimilarities in the mapping approach, explore operational and technological potentialities, recognize pitfalls, thus paving the road to find consensus solutions and prepare uniform guidelines from coast to deep sea.
4. The Anthropocene and the effect of human footprint on marine habitats: This session will focus on recent approaches and technological development to map the human footprint in the Anthropocene, including benthic marine litter. Talks may include approaches to evaluate the submerged human pressures and impacts, as well as estimating long-lasting consequences on sea-floor morphology and habitat properties.
5. Role of oceanography in habitat mapping: This session will attempt to bring together the fields of oceanographic modelling and habitat mapping, by considering the role of water masses in shaping species and habitat spatial patterns.
6. Habitat mapping and climate change: This session will focus on the role of habitat mapping in assessing the marine ecosystem responses to global warming and ocean acidification. Talks may include future climate scenarios highlighting how changes of benthic habitat ecosystem can be assessed through predictive models of ecosystem shifts and how potential habitat loss might influence future predictive scenarios.
7. Habitat mapping for maritime spatial planning (MSP) within an ecosystem based approach: This session will focus on studies related to an ecosystem-based approach applied to a MSP aimed at maintaining the ecosystem integrity and ensuring the sustainable use of its goods and services. The session includes talks focused on the applicability of habitat mapping at different scales or resolution to ‘real world’ applications in the context of marine resources management, policy implementations, anthropogenic pressures, natural and cultural heritage protection.
8. Submerged landscapes and cultural heritage: This session will focus on studies related to submerged landscapes and underwater cultural heritage. Underwater cultural heritage holds not only information about the history of humankind and the social importance of the oceans but also about the history of climate change and its impact on humanity. This session will also focus on the technical approaches employed to discover and monitor the submerged landscapes and archaeological sites.

International scientific commitee

• Vaughn Barrie (Geological Survey of Canada, Pacific)
• Craig Brown (Nova Scotia Community College, Canada)
• Guy Cochrane (U.S. Geological Survey)
• Margaret Dolan (Geological Survey of Norway, Norway)
• Andrea Fiorentino (Geological Survey of Italy-ISPRA, Italy)
• Gary Greene (Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, USA)
• Daniel Ierodiaconou (Deakin University, Australia)
• Aarno Kotilainen (Geological Survey of Finland, Finland)
• Geoffroy Lamarche (NIWA, University of Aukland, New Zealand)
• Tim Le Bas (National Oceanography Centre, UK)
• Kim Picard (GeoScience Australia)
• Daria Ryabchuk (Karpinsky Russian Geological Research Institute, Russia)
• Donna Schroeder (U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management)
• Heather Stewart (British Geological Survey, UK)
• Brian Todd (Geological Survey of Canada, Atlantic)

Co-conveener

• Federica Foglini (Institute of Marine Sciences, Italy)
• Fantina Madricardo (Institute of Marine Sciences, Italy)