The European Atlas of the Seas is a tool developed to provide information about Europe’s marine environment, covering topics such as nature, tourism, security, energy, passenger transport, sea bottom, sea level rise, fish consumption, and much more. Users can benefit from an enriched catalogue with more than 200 map layers to explore, collate and create their own marine and coastal maps. These maps can be printed, shared and embedded in articles or presentations. The Atlas is free to use and accessible to all, and it is the ideal tool for schools, researchers and professionals, or anyone wishing to enhance their knowledge. It aims to raise awareness of Europe’s seas and coasts in the context of the EU’s integrated maritime policy. To improve accessibility to all EU citizens, the Atlas is available in the 24 official languages of the European Union.
At the end of 2022, the Atlas Team developed a new function that will further facilitate the work of teachers and educators as they will now be able to create their own working space in the Atlas. The new My Maps function, currently available in the framework of a pilot phase, makes it possible for Atlas users to save their work (e.g. a map composed of a combination of map layers they have selected for which they can add a title and a description) in their own working space behind login and to easily come back to it later.
Your Atlas will let you:
- Save your selection of map layers,
- Add your title to your map,
- Generate a nice thumbnail or replace it by a picture,
- Add your description of the map.
During the pilot phase, the Atlas Team is organising an online survey to collect users’ feedback to ensure that the My Maps function meets their needs. Teachers and educators are encouraged to try the new tool and provide their feedback and ideas so that it can be further improved.
The European Atlas of the Seas is an initiative of the Directorate General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (DG MARE) of the European Commission and it is managed by the EMODnet Secretariat. For further information about it you can contact the EMODnet Project Officer Nathalie Van Isacker (nathalie.van.isacker@emodnet.eu).