Preserving and sharing geospatial data to enhance the sustainable management of biological resources in the Sinis MPA

The Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI) are a critical component of Maritime Spatial Planning to provide a means to preserve and share geospatial data. Objective of the work is to create a geospatial database to data repository and integration of abiotic/biotic variables, anthropogenic pressures, habitat and species distribution patterns by means of the software suite Geoinformation Enabling Toolkit StarterKit (GET-IT), developed by researchers of the National Research Council for RITMARE project. GET-IT facilitates the creation of distributed nodes of an interoperable SDI and enables unskilled researchers from various scientific domains to create their own Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standard services for distributing geospatial data, observations and metadata of sensors and datasets. Specifically, this work focuses on the case study of sea urchin fishery management in the "Penisola del Sinis - Isola di Mal di Ventre" Marine Protected Area (herein after "Sinis MPA"). This topic was a key example considering that: (1) Paracentrotus lividus is one of the most intensively exploited invertebrates in Sardinia and a key grazer able in shaping the structure of sublittoral assemblages; (2) there are more restrictive rules governing its exploitation inside the reserve even if the MPA is characterized by low levels of legal compliance and enforcement (3) there is wide availability of spatial and temporal data coming from three different institutions (i.e. Sinis MPA, IAMC-CNR, IMC). The products of the present work are the creation of an information system on the sea urchin resource through interoperable tools allowing the data storage in several levels of information, their sharing integrated management and analysis. This tool, facilitating the understanding of the ecological processes and offers an means to discuss with local stakeholders ways to increase the management effectiveness of biological resources and the individuation of possible policy solutions.