Identifying the possible impacts of rock dump from oil and gas decommissioning on Annex I mobile sandbanks.
Open Access
Report
2017
Joint Nature Conservation Committee
Pidduck, E., Jones, R., Daglish, P., Farley, A., Morley, N., Page, A. and Soubies, H.
North Norfolk Sandbanks and Saturn Reef (NNSSR) candidate Special Area of Conservation (cSAC)/Site of Community Importance (SCI) were used as a case study. The study identified that there is currently insufficient information to quantify or qualify the implications of rock dump in the NNSSR cSAC/SCI from a physical and biological perspective. It is not possible to quantify or qualify the movement of sandbanks around or over existing or applied rock dump. Theoretically, the mobile sandbanks may cyclically cover applied rock dump and there is the potential for scour to be induced if an appropriate design is not chosen. Without further information on rock berm design, monitoring studies and numerical modelling of such behaviour, the short-term and long-term implications of both theoretical behaviours are difficult to determine.
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