Currently, the multitude of information about marine geological, geochemical, and biological data and spatial patterns as well as economic use in coastal areas and along continental margins increases tremendously. There is a considerable need for a generalised analysis and synthesis of seafloor data, clustering the multitude of detail information.

MarGIS intends the combination of Geo-Information-Systems (GIS), research data, and multivariate geostatistical techniques for characterisation and identification of distinct provinces at the seafloor of marine and coastal zones. This includes spatial budgets of geological and biogeochemical cycles and the characterisation of provinces at the seafloor based on the combination of several information layers.Such a typological approach, the analysis of classification based on types, is one prerequisite for management issues related to coastal seafloor. It provides a frame work for improved application of large environmental data sets, allows enhanced visualisation of multiple information layers, and supports modelling of temporal and spatial interrelations of coastal and ocean regions.

For publishing and sharing marine geodata we are working with webGIS services that represent interactive thematic maps in our MarGIS viewers devided into research areas:

MarGIS North Sea: http://gissrv5.awi.de/margis/NorthSea-BalticSea

MarGIS Håkon Mosby mud volcano (HMMV): http://gissrv5.awi.de/margis/HMMV/

Together with partners from other research institutes and SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises) our intention is to build up Sensor Networks and concepts for GIS-based analysis of spatial data.