EMODnet Bathymetry a compilation of bathymetric data in the European waters

The EMODnet 2018 digital elevation models gathers over 9400 bathymetric survey data sets and composite gridded product that have been gathered from 49 data providers from 24 European countries. The incorporated surveys data sets can be discovered and requested for access through the Common Data Index (CDI) data discovery and access service that in September 2018 contained over 27.000 entries. Likewise composite DTMs can be discovered through the Sextant Catalogue service. Based on an unequivocal dataset sampling strategy along with clearly identified roles and ad hoc tools generating a global DTM is made possible, alongside with corresponding grid cell statistics. The viewing and downloading services of the EMODnet bathymetry portal (www.emodnet-bathymetry.eu) give users wide functionalities to interact with EMODnet digital elevation model and all its constituents. They are also made available by means of OGC web services (WMS, WFS, WCS, WMTS). The original datasets themselves are not distributed but described in the metadata services, giving clear information about the background survey data used for the DTM, their access restrictions, if any, originators and distributors. The semi-distributed infrastructure of SeaDataNet facilitates requests from users to data providers with metadata harmonized and centralized on the metadata catalogs, while preserving the datasets at their native resolution with the data originator.