Scientists at the EMSO ERIC partner National Oceanography Centre (NOC) have just released a forward-looking review on application of marine autonomous systems to environmental monitoring of industry impacts; the paper, titled “Autonomous marine environmental monitoring: Application in decommissioned oil fields”, is available here.
The review focuses on oil and gas structure decommissioning, a timely issue, since hundreds of oil and gas industry structures are approaching that stage. The study shows how already available marine autonomous systems (MAS) – such as fixed-point observatories, among others – offer a broad range of solution for the environmental assessment and monitoring that is needed to support the decommissioning operations.
Indeed, such operations affect the marine environment at a global scale, and environmental monitoring is necessary to mitigate impacts. The study suggests that MAS represents a viable alternative to conventional approaches, because of their potential to automate much environmental monitoring, improve spatial and temporal resolution, and provide cost savings.
Read more here.