INIS Hydro project launched

The £3.2m venture under the EU’s INTERREG IVA Structural Funds Programme is aimed at producing a standardised hydrographic survey specification and accurate high resolution bathymetric datasets for seven important seabed areas to the east of Ireland and Northern Ireland as well as off the west coast of Scotland.

Work will involve detailed surveys of the Firth of Lorn and the SW Islay Renewables area in Scotland, shallow and deepwater sectors of Dundalk Bay in the Republic of Ireland, and Carlingford Lough, Dundrum Bay and parts of the Mourn Coast in Northern Ireland. All have been chosen for their environmental significance and suitability for offshore renewables development, for which all existing nautical charts will need to be updated.

According to Howard Keery of the Special EU Programmes Body, the project has the potential to provide data that will help the designated regions benefit substantially from still widely untapped natural resources. As such, it will involve surveys of around 1,400 sq/km by various survey vessels equipped with multibeam sonar technology. Other members of the MCA-led consortium are the Agri-Food & Biosciences Institute of Northern Ireland, the Geological Survey of Ireland, the Irish Marine Institute, the Scottish Association for Marine Science, the Northern Lighthouse Board and the UK Hydrographic Office.

INIS Hydro follows the successful EU funded joint Irish Bathymetric Survey (JIBS) and is co-financed by the MCA, the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and the Northern Lighthouse Board. Work is due to be completed by September 2013.