Author(s): Philippe F.V.W. Frankemolle; Jebbe J. Van Der Werf; Wout Van Dijk; Suzanne J.M.H. Hulscher
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Abstract: The North Sea is one of the most used seas worldwide. Human activities in the Dutch part of the North Sea, such as offshore wind farms, sand extractions, gas platforms, network cables, and recreation, add an estimated 25 billion euros to the Dutch GDP (Noordzeeloket, 2022). However, the increase in planned offshore wind turbine farms and sand extractions could potentially lead to significant changes of hydrographical properties of the North Sea (van Rijn, 1997) – both close to and further away from the interventions – which could have implications for ecology and other coastal functions. The European Commission created the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) (European Commission, 2014) to work towards sustainable usage of European waters. Currently, the influence of offshore interventions on hydrographical conditions such as salinity stratification, temperature stratification and residual currents are barely taken into account in the management of the Dutch North Sea and a set of indicators to quantify these hydrographical changes is lacking. We aim to create a user-friendly dashboard to quantify and visualise the spatial extent of these hydrographical alterations in different scenarios, with varying amounts of offshore wind turbine farms and sand extractions on the basis of detailed 3D numerical model simulations and other data sources. The dashboard serves as a digital exploratory tool for finding and tuning relevant indicators for hydrographical alteration.
Year: 2026