Geographical information system of the north sea

Researchers:

Henriet van der Veen




Michiel Knaapen


René Buijsrogge


Suzanne Hulscher



Organisations:

University of Twente



Funding:

EU-HUMOR, BSIK project-We@sea



Period:

1 April 2003 – 1 April 2007


Background

The North Sea is a very dynamic area, which is reflected in several morphological features, ranging from small ripples to large tidal sand banks. The larger of these patterns interfere with human activities at sea, e.g. sand banks can cause problems for navigation and migrating sand waves are a risk for pipelines and communication cables. Vice versa, new activities like large-scale sand extraction and offshore windmill parks may affect the morphological features of the seabed. For a sustainable use of the North Sea, it is important to understand and predict the interactions of the seabed and human activities.

Objectives

The goal of this project is to build a GIS of the North Sea in which data of the North Sea is gathered. This data can then be compared to the results of morphological models, so these models can be calibrated and validated. By implementing the morphological models, the GIS will be able to predict the integral consequences of human activities in the North Sea area. Therefore, it can be used to propose the most suitable locations for certain activities in the North Sea area.