Germany — ‘In deep with marine environmental surveys — Exploiting sandbanks’

An application tested by SUMARE, relates to government-sanctioned offshore exploitation of sand on the Belgian continental shelf. However, there is concern that growing exploitation could lead to a reduction in size — or even disappearance — of the banks. In turn this could affect water currents and erosion/sedimentation characteristics of the area, and lead to undesirable impacts on the nearby beaches.

As such the Flemish sandbanks have been subject to monitoring for several years. Traditionally, depth measurements are done by ships equipped with hydrographical instruments. But that is time-consuming, expensive (at a cost of €10,000 per day per ship) and at low tide, navigating the banks can be difficult. Mini-autonomous underwater vehicles, as demonstrated by SUMARE, offer a practical, more efficient and cheaper alternative.

SUMARE’s intensive data collection and analysis has shown that human activity on the sandbank could have had an impact on the shape and size of the sandbanks over previous years. However without further detailed analysis, the question of sustainability of the activity remains unanswered. Norro adds: “What is certain is that further investigation supported by intensified monitoring by AUVs, based on the SUMARE design, will form a key contribution,” since it enables a faster and more cost-effective answer to be reached.

See the report from the Innovations Website


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