Seven Good Reasons for Integrating Terrestrial and Marine Spatial Datasets in Changing Environments

A comprehensive understanding of environmental changes taking place in coastal regions reliesonaccurateintegrationofbothterrestrialandsubmergedgeo-environmentaldatasets. However, this practice is hardly implemented because of the high (or even prohibitive) survey costs required for submerged areas and the frequent low accessibility of shallow areas. In addition, geoscientists are used to working on land or at sea independently, making the integration even more challenging. Undoubtedlynewmethodsandtechniquesofoffshoreinvestigationadoptedoverthelast50yearsand thelatestadvancesincomputervisionhaveplayedacrucialroleinallowingaseamlesscombinationof terrestrialandmarinedata. Althougheffortstowardsaninnovativeintegrationofgeo-environmental data from above to underwater are still in their infancy, we have identified seven topics for which this integration could be of tremendous benefit for environmental research: (1) geomorphological mapping; (2) Late-Quaternary changes of coastal landscapes; (3) geoarchaeology; (4) geoheritage and geodiversity; (5) geohazards; (6) marine and landscape ecology; and (7) coastal planning and management. Our review indicates that the realization of seamless DTMs appears to be the basic conditiontooperateacomprehensiveintegrationofmarineandterrestrialdatasets,sofarexhaustively achieved in very few case studies. Technology and interdisciplinarity will be therefore critical for the developmentofaholisticapproachtounderstandourchangingenvironmentsanddesignappropriate management measures accordingly.