2010 - 2011, British Geological Survey, The MALSF synthesis study in the central and eastern English Channel series https://portal.medin.org.uk/portal/start.php?tpc=015_2da55047767c53efb589a4a5b88fbb00 The need for effective stewardship of the marine environment through integrated management, balancing the requirements for development and exploitation with nature conservation and legislation, has been widely recognised. However, implementing such a strategy requires a significant knowledge of the nature of the sea bed. Acquiring such knowledge in the central and eastern English Channel has been a focus of the Marine Aggregate Levy Sustainability Fund (MALSF) since 2005. The MALSF has funded a series of surveys to acquire high resolution data and its subsequent interpretation, along with other data, using a multi-disciplinary approach including geologists, biologists and archaeologists. This study presents a synthesis and summary of the results and outputs of these previous studies aimed at a wider public audience in an accessible and relatively simple format, complementing the published scientific reports and datasets that have been produced. This synthesis report has as its core two regional environmental characterisation (REC) studies, the Eastern English Channel Marine Habitat Map (EECMHM) and the South Coast REC. The principal objectives for the EECMHM and South Coast RECs and this synthesis study include geological interpretations to characterise the rock and sediments, ecological interpretations of the marine biology, and integrating the geology and biology to provide maps of sea bed habitat. Archaeological objectives include characterising and mapping wrecks and objects on the sea bed, and also characterising the potential of the area to contain submerged sites of prehistoric occupation. The amalgamated data from these two REC studies plus further data in the two new areas has been re-assessed to provide a harmonised interpretation for the whole synthesis study area. The synthesis study has also enabled a new analysis of the biological and geological characteristics of the study area and the production of a new biotope interpretation and map, based on a modified EUNIS classification. 20110321