Geospatial Mapping of Impacts from Offshore Wind on Benthic Community and Heritage Assets

Funded by a Southampton Geospatial HEIF award

This project models the potential impact on heritage assets and benthic ecology of different scenarios for meeting the UK’s net zero commitments through increased offshore renewable energy (ORE) generation.  The UK is projected to grow offshore wind installed capacity from the current 11 GW to ~65 by 2050 based on government commitments. This may require up to 50,000 turbines occupying up to 150,000 km² of ocean space (up to five times more area than current leased sites), with connectivity to the UK electricity grid or to offshore hydrogen production facilities.

The space within which this activity must occur is home to finite heritage assets and complex marine ecosystems, all of which carry varying levels of protection under UK and devolved government legislation.  As such, difficult decisions have been taken as to where and how development may occur. 

At present the early parts of this process are reliant on dated strategic environmental assessments, regional environmental characterisation and simplistic GIS driven conflict assessments that do not take account of differential scheme impacts. This shapes where consents are given and subsequently where more detailed environmental impact assessment is undertaken.

Working with key stakeholders this project will leverage improved understanding of design specifications, installation methods and post installation impacts (from fixed to floating) to provide a new baseline for marine spatial planning and risk assessment.  This will be achieved through matching engineering specifications to newly available higher resolution bathymetry, subsurface geology, heritage and environmental data.

To meet the net zero targets and accelerate the energy transition, the current capacity of offshore wind in UK waters needs to increase by a factor of five by 2030, or by a factor of ten by 2050 for domestic electrification purposes (and even higher for green hydrogen or hydrogen export). Achieving this tenfold increase would require the installation of approximately 15,000 10 MW turbines, occupying approximately 35,000 km² of seabed in the increasingly crowded UK waters. To install foundations and anchors to secure offshore wind turbines in place in the seabed across UK waters, a sustainable and resilient technology is required, taking into account the varying met-ocean and soil characteristics of different regions. However, the installation and post-installation processes of offshore wind turbines can cause disturbance to the seabed environment, posing significant risks to the benthic community and heritage assets.

In this study, we aim to address these challenges by utilizing public datasets and engaging with research stakeholders such as 

• the Ministry of Defense (MoD)
• Historic England
• the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas). 

Our approach involves developing a geospatial database that integrates multi-variant data, including anthropogenic, geoscience, met-ocean, and ecological information. This geospatial database will be used to identify suitable locations for future offshore wind sites, and assess the potential impact on the environment, specifically the benthic community and heritage assets, for each net zero target envisioned for UK waters.