Geophysics in the Water - Oceanology 2014

Oceanology International was held in March at the ExCel centre in East London. Day 3 featured three parallel sessions of which Hydrography and Geophysics and Unmanned Underwater Vehicles caught our reporter Richard Groom’s attention. Both featured interesting presentations and attracted capacity audiences.

Yearly conferences are snapshots of the industry, reinforcing that change happens. Oceanology two years ago featured a significant number of stands offering services to clean up oil spills – something to do with the Gulf of Mexico disaster. Two years on and this niche was rather smaller. There also seemed not too many hydrographers about. This could be to do with the expansion of Ocean Business, which two delegates, overheard on the way to OI, reckoned was more ‘hands-on’. Perhaps but OI is certainly less claustrophobic. The ExCel centre is spacious and there were plenty of vessels moored in the dock to welcome delegates.

Guidance for Renewable

The Hydrography and Geophysics sessions were dominated by geophysics. Indeed, this year it felt as though hydrography is in danger of becoming just one of many sensors. Richard Orren spoke on on Guidance Notes for the Planning and Execution of Geophysical and Geotechnical Ground Investigations for Offshore Renewable Energy Developments. The notes are about to be published by SUT (Society for Underwater Technology), having been produced by a 37-person subcommittee, which did not, but perhaps should have, included a hydrographer.

The notes are intended not just for wind turbines but also for cabling and substations associated with them and for other forms of renewable technology – such as tidal and wave power. To use the same infrastructure for other forms of renewable power generation is so obvious and yet seems only recently to have been considered. The guidance notes are important because 25% to 40% of the cost of offshore construction is in the foundations; and this is likely to increase as the industry moves into deeper water. A draft schedule is intended to guide developers towards carrying out fieldwork in the productive summer months, which might not please those who are keen to keep utilisation up during the winter months. It is worthwhile that hydrographers read this document if only for marginal interest – see http://sig.sut.org.uk/sutosig.htm.

Integrated Thinking

Orren’s presentation seemed to emphasise a move towards integrated thinking. The geotech engineers need ready access to a lot of data in a single GIS environment. The second presentation was about unexploded ordnance (UXO). This is quite a problem, particularly in the North Sea and David Sinclair of Southern GeoServices gave a fascinating insight into the skills involved in examining several datasets and knowledge of the type and size of weapons that were fired but did not hit their target, those that did, and those that were dumped. Sinclair says that the best time to carry out surveys for UXO is during finalisation of the route.

Data management and presentation continued with Brian Critchley of Geo-4D explaining how his software can integrate a myriad of different datasets into one environment. This includes 3D seismic and sub-bottom profile data, as it is now possible to detect and derive 3D surfaces that are visible within the point clouds. The software has a seamless link to ArcGIS and Critchley presented an impressive fly-through above water, in water and below the seabed using the misleadingly titled ArcGIS City engine.

Brittany Bruce from Fugro spoke about an ArcGIS application that she has written for finding the optimum location for wind turbine anchor points in deep water. The technique uses multi-criteria analysis to find the optimum location for three anchor points for an offshore structure, like a deep-water wind turbine. This was followed by a talk in the Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (UUV) session giving a global forecast for the UUV industry in 2014 – 2018 by Murray Dormer from Douglas Westwood. He sees potential for UUVs as a means of cutting the cost of development as oil and gas moves into deeper and more inhospitable water. There is also a future for UUVs for pipeline and cable inspection surveys. Westwood’s talk was followed by a presentation by a chartered surveyor Michael Liddell from Fugro Survey. He considered the challenges associated with handling and storing the vast quantities of data being produced by hydrographic surveying and the prospects for the future. The figures are impressive, but how much data do you actually need to archive?

The exhibition was vast and informative and the presentations I attended were of high quality and largely free of supplier bias.

This article was published in Geomatics World May/June 2014