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Project Goal
As manager of the seabed and much of the coastline around England, Wales and Northern Ireland, we work with industry and stakeholders to unlock its potential to support the nation's transition to a sustainable and decarbonised future. Our seas support many industries imperative to livelihoods as well as important natural habitats and wildlife and with ever increasing demands on the seabed, we need to take a holistic view on how we manage the space to ensure the right activities are brought forward in the right locations in the right way. Using our unique geospatial tools, the Whole of Seabed Programme builds a holistic evidence base and digital map of UK seabed resources needed to meet demand in key policy areas and catalyse the delivery of multiple priorities including net zero and nature recovery. This allows us to identify offshore sectoral interactions to 2050 in greater detail than ever before, ensuring that decisions today create lasting and shared prosperity for the nation.Business Problem Solved
We have a responsibility to deliver value for the nation and nature – through enabling green energy, driving economic growth and jobs, and creating and protecting thriving biodiversity and marine environments.??However, the seabed is an increasingly busy space. It is our responsibility to ensure that future activities are planned sustainably, and where possible, sectors co-locate, to make the most efficient use of space, enabling offshore sectors and nature to thrive together. We must also consider the impacts of development on coastal communities and the people whose livelihoods depend on our seas. Therefore, the sectoral analysis conducted by the Whole of Seabed Programme must ensure environmental, economic and social interests are represented in line with stakeholder views, requiring deep marine technical knowledge. Expert problem-solving is at the heart of the complex challenge of turning UK policy objectives into geospatial scenarios that can give confidence to decision makers.
Technology Implemented
We use desktop GIS tools (Esri), FME and our bespoke Resource Identification and Optimisation (RIO) tool, which is built on Esri ArcGIS Pro to run our Whole of Seabed programme. We process and weight hundreds of spatial datasets that consider all seabed users, interests and sensitivities, allowing us to identify optimised, technically viable, prime areas of opportunity. These areas are attributed to a digital hexagonal grid of the seabed (divided into c.250,000 cells) which is used to run multi-sector spatial scenarios out to 2050. By developing advanced deployment modelling tools, we will reduce the time it takes to run the different stages of our modelling to a matter of minutes. Spatial analysis is key to unlocking the challenges of achieving net zero and nature recovery and we aim for our work to make a positive difference, inspire other nations and organisations, and serve as the model for others to strive towards in spatial problem solving.
Development Team Biography
Michelle Moore -Technical & Spatial planning Director: Leads spatial planning within Marine and accountable for delivering the WoS Programme
Joe Sykes - Senior Marine Spatial Planning Manager: Leads spatial methodology definition and supporting programme delivery & engagement
Tristan Bromley - Whole of Seabed Lead: Leads programme delivery, development and engagement
Kieran Bell - Senior Spatial Insights manager: Spatial lead for Marine Energy and Telecoms and spatial insights and analytics across scenarios
Greg Brown - Spatial Planning Manager: Spatial lead for Nature, CCUS, CCUS Pipelines, Hydrogen and Natural Gas Storage, Interconnectors and Wind Export Cables.
Oscar Pyrgies - Spatial Planning Manager: Spatial lead for Marine Aggregates
David Hinton - GIS Specialist: Leads spatial modelling and scenario buildout.
David Bower - Geospatial Data Specialist: Maintains the core geospatial data used within Whole of Seabed, and supports spatial modelling