INSTITUTE OF NATURAL SCIENCES
Operational Directorate Natural Environment
MARECO – Marine Ecology and Management
EMERGENCY PLAN for Monitoring & Assessment Marine Environmental Impact in Marine Pollution Under the European Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), EU member states are required to monitor & assess the environmental impact of significant acute pollution at sea (mostly incidental marine pollution). Monitoring & assessment of incidental marine pollution are emergency measures that are an…
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…
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…
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…
COMOFISH – COoperative MOnitoring of FISHeries exclusion measures in Belgian Waters. In the framework of the EU Common Fisheries Policy, MARECO is responsible for the design and implementation of the national monitoring program on the evaluation of the effectiveness of bottom-disturbing fisheries measures. The goals are a baseline monitoring survey for three areas in Belgian waters…
Vision Development Aquaculture & Wind Farm Decommissioning Aquaculture at sea and the decommissioning of wind farms are associated with many opportunities and challenges. In the Belgian part of the North Sea, a lot of activities are already ongoing in those areas. The federal government would like to align and consolidate these initiatives in an integrated vision.…
MarinePlan MarinePlan is an interdisciplinary project that advocates for an integrative ecosystem-based management of marine areas. Its objective is to develop a clear, practical and homogeneous methodology for ecosystem-based marine spatial planning implementation across European countries. This framework will account for all stages of the process, from pre-operational preparation, to implementation, monitoring and success evaluation.…
EMF Effects on Marine Life The effect of artificial electromagnetic fields on the early-life stage development of electro- and magneto-sensitive North Sea species The project evaluates the potential impact of energy development at sea on reproduction and conservation of electro- and magneto-sensitive species that cohabit offshore wind farms in the Belgian Part of the North…
