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Study of sand wave migration over five years as observed in two windfarm development areas, and the implications for building on moving substrates in the North Sea

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2015

Ken P. Games  and
David I. Gordon
Ken P. Games
Affiliation:
Gardline Geosurvey Ltd, Admiralty Road, Great Yarmouth, NR30 3NG. Email: [email protected]; [email protected]
David I. Gordon
Affiliation:
Gardline Geosurvey Ltd, Admiralty Road, Great Yarmouth, NR30 3NG. Email: [email protected]; [email protected]
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Abstract

Sand waves are well known indicators of a mobile seabed. What do we expect of these features in terms of migration rates and seabed scour? We discuss these effects on seabed structures, both for the Oil and Gas and the Windfarm Industries, and consider how these impact on turbines and buried cables. Two case studies are presented. The first concerns a windfarm with a five-year gap between the planning survey and a subsequent cable route and environmental assessment survey. This revealed large-scale movements of sand waves, with the displacement of an isolated feature of 155 m in five years. Secondly, another windfarm development involved a re-survey, again over a five-year period, but after the turbines had been installed. This showed movements of sand waves of ∼50 m in five years. Observations of the scour effects on the turbines are discussed. Both sites revealed the presence of barchans. Whilst these have been extensively studied on land, there are few examples of how they behave in the marine environment. The two case studies presented show that mass transport is potentially much greater than expected and that this has implications for choosing turbine locations, the effect of scour, and the impact these sediment movements are likely to have on power cables.

Keywords

Barchanmulti-beam echo soundersandbankscour
Type
Articles
Information
Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh , Volume 105 , Issue 4: Seabed Mapping for the 21st Century – the Marine Environmental Mapping Programme (MAREMAP) , December 2014 , pp. 241 - 249
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Society of Edinburgh 2015 

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