INSTITUTE OF NATURAL SCIENCES
Operational Directorate Natural Environment
MARECO – Marine Ecology and Management
OWiDEx – Offshore Wind Decommissioning Expertise Centre Belgium is among the world leaders in the installation & maintenance of offshore wind farms. The decommissioning of the first offshore wind turbines is in sight. The knowledge already acquired about the decom value chain is fragmented, making a supported vision seem far away. This project will put all the separate elements…
ULTFARMS ULTFARMS aims to demonstrate a profitable, sustainable and eco-friendly low-trophic food (molluscs and seaweed) production from offshore aquaculture activities shared within windfarms in the North Sea and Baltic Sea. Six pilots will be implemented that combine low-trophic aquaculture (LTA) in six different offshore windfarms (OWF) across four northern European countries: Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands…
Environmental Impact Monitoring Numerous human activities take place in the Belgian part of the North Sea. Several of these activities, depending on the extent and type of the project, require an environmental permit as stated by law. This environmental permit includes a number of terms and conditions intended to minimise and/or mitigate the impact of…
DASA – Digital Animal Sound Archive The use of bio-acoustics in biological and ecological studies is widespread as they can be used to study species distribution, phenology, ecology and behaviour of organisms that are often visually elusive. This results in extensive datasets that are scattered in many different locations. As such, the overall objective of…
MPVAQUA-bis – Floating solar at sea This project will investigate the economic feasibility of offshore floating solar technology, based on the concept developed in the context of the VLAIO Project MPVAQUA. The study focuses on applications of this technology in a Belgian North Sea context, ideally in combination with offshore wind farms. The economic feasibility…
EcoMPV – Eco-designing marine photovoltaic installations EcoMPV will deepen the knowledge about environmental challenges related to offshore PV installations, aiming at technical solutions to mitigate undesired consequences and maximize beneficial impacts. We will address knowledge gaps about (1) altered underwater light field, hydrodynamics, pelagic biogeochemistry and primary production, (2) the artificial habitat provision for colonizing fauna and fish, and…
PureWind The PURE WIND three year JPI Oceans project will quantify key features of radiated noise from fixed and floating offshore wind farms, to increase understanding and simulate cumulative effect of clusters on radiated noise, helping to identify sensitive habitats in cross-basin soundscapes. From the biological perspective, the project will identify spatial and qualitative use…
ECOSTAR – Ecosystem level importance of Structures as Artificial Reefs EcoSTAR aims at understanding how the introduction or removal of man-made structures (MMS) will affect the North Sea ecosystem. The EcoSTAR research focusses on the interactions between man-made structures and top predators on the hand, and interactions between man-made structures and benthos on the other…
NESTORE – NESTed modeling approach for ORE development and cumulative impact assessment considering local to regional environmental and socio-economic stakes NESTORE will assist the French offshore renewable energy industry to cope with the legal obligations to conduct cumulative impact assessments. NESTORE will develop a set of tools that inform stakeholders about local (at the scale…
METRIC The pressure on marine ecosystems and the services they deliver is increasing dramatically due to global change combined with anthropogenic activities. METRIC addresses the impact of these stressors on the relationship between marine functional diversity and ecosystem stability using existing ecosystem-wide databases on marine biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and environmental settings. Research will target biogeochemical…
