Field testing and data collection

 

 

A key aim of the MESH Project was the delivery of guidance that was fully tested in the actual field environment to ensure that practical solutions are offered to end users. TNO (Netherlands) co-ordinated the project's activities to test, in an iterative process, the standards and protocols for data collection, the data processing techniques, the data integration process and map presentation ideas proposed by the project. Such testing helped to improve the protocols and guidelines in a step-wise approach and led to harmonised and internationally acceptable standards aimed at consistent collection, processing and interpretation of physical and biological mapping data. A series of research cruises and mapping studies were carried out during the testing phase, have also helped fill some of the gaps identified during the data collation phase to extend the area of seabed mapped in north-west Europe. Data from these cruises were used to develop and validate the predictive models developed elsewhere in the MESH Project.