Accurate and extensive marine habitat maps are fundamental to support a wide variety of marine policies and ambitions. These include the European Union’s Marine Strategy Framework Directive and policies to deliver the ambitious plans of the European Green Deal. The simultaneous scaling up of sustainable Blue Economy activities, while protecting and restoring marine ecosystems as part of the EU 2030 Biodiversity Strategy and the proposed Nature Restoration Law will require increased knowledge of marine habitats. Marine habitat mapping aims to create a holistic representation of the distribution of marine habitats in space and time, and provide insight into associated biological communities, ecological status and condition, and physical properties. Habitat maps are valuable spatial decision-support tools that inform the sustainable use of marine space when using an ecosystem-based approach. They can be used to assess the impact of anthropogenic pressures on marine resources and ecosystem services, to identify and plan new networks of marine protected areas and areas for restoration, and to inform maritime spatial planning. However, large areas remain unmapped and current maps predominantly focus on physical aspects of marine habitats and lack sufficient biological resolution, such as species and communities. Higher resolution maps are needed to better represent the linkages between the seabed and water column in three dimensions and to enable an ecosystem approach to mapping that considers the marine environment in the fourth dimension, capturing the timing of important ecological processes.
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