Irish engineering consultancy company, Gavin and Doherty Geosolutions (GDG), has been awarded a contract to investigate sediment dynamic processes in the Irish Sea and their impact on planned offshore wind farm developments.
The company will carry out the EUR 200,000 project with technical support from Dr. Jimmy Murphy from the MaREI research centre.
To fully understand the seabed morphodynamics before and following offshore wind development, a thorough understanding of the hydrodynamics and seabed morphodynamics processes is required, GDG said.
The project will conduct a morphodynamic study of designated areas in the Irish Sea, including predictive sediment transport modelling that will be used to characterise future seabed changes and to quantify the risk for future offshore wind developments in the Irish Sea.
The outcomes of the project will support developers in efficient design, installation and maintenance planning of offshore renewable assets (including support structures for WTG/substations, inter-array and export cables) and will reduce the risk associated with future wind farm developments in the Irish Sea, according to GDG.
The company added that the project supports Irelands’ national strategy for the sustainable development of Ireland’s marine resource, as outlined in the National Marine Research and Innovation Strategy 2017-2021.
The new study will be more extensive than the one GDG completed in the summer of 2018, which included a two-year investigation of the geomorphology off the East coast of Ireland.