The Marine Management Organisation (MMO) is currently going through the process of marine planning for English marine waters. During consultations, stakeholders expressed a desire for a national dataset to be developed to identify sites suitable for coastal and marine habitat creation or restoration. ABPmer were commissioned to help develop such a dataset and identify which habitats are the ‘best’ to be created.
The six data layers developed for the project cover mudflats and saltmarshes, biogenic reefs and seagrass beds. The intention is that they can be used to help search for potential restoration or creation sites. With regard to creating a list of the ‘best’ habitats for use in (re)creation / restoration, the report presents a high-level matrix which broadly assesses the restoration feasibility of all marine and coastal habitats which are considered to be of principal national importance.