The Concept of Marine Landscapes Within the French Information System on Nature and Landscapes (SINP)

Several concepts revolve around the term “marine landscapes”: all of them are nourished by aggregating data from multiple sources and disciplines. The SINP (Systeme d’Information sur la Nature et les Paysages) is the French marine biodiversity and landscape building block in the global marine data infrastructure pyramid. Within this information system marine landscapes have been apprehended in both a pictorial and an ecological manner, therefore the usages of the SINP depend on the adopted definition. Through examples we argue that by increasing the availability of the massive volumes of cross-domain data necessary for apprehending landscapes, regardless of the chosen definition, the SINP can play a role in defining and refining our understanding of marine landscapes.