ON THE APPLICATION OF THE POWER OF GIS TO ENVIRONMENTALMEASUREMENTS FOR THE MONITORING, EXPLOITATION ANDSUSTAINABLE ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT OF MARINEECOSYSTEMS

摘要

Interest in sustainable environmental management of marine ecosystems is nowadays increasing rapidly as a result of the dramatic extending of man’s economic activity in the vicinity of coasts, estuaries and deeper waters of the shelf edge and continental slope. Therefore, one needs to model the marine environment by setting up measurement procedures for evaluating natural and human impacts, which requires an interdisciplinary approach on multiple levels in order to predict its evolution with respect to environmental protection and the conservation of natural resources. Remotely sensed oceanographic measurements in conjunction with geographic information system (GIS) may be a useful tool for defining strategies, for the monitoring of marine ecosystems over time and space and for the efficient updating of the marine environmental information. The GIS in marine ecosystems enables to integrate all relevant multilayer, spatial and temporal data acquired from the investigated marine environment, viz. high resolution bathymetry, characterisation of seabed, sediments and near sub-bottom, and the capability to query and display information for monitoring effectiveness. This paper will outline through two examples of the potential use and application of GIS in monitoring, exploitation and sustainable environmental management of marine ecosystems. Some obtained results validate the suitability of GIS for this purpose.