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1 INTRODUCTION
Intensive navigation together with technical large
scale objects located in the marine areas modify
already existing natural physical fields and
distributions of other physical, chemical or
biological values in marine space. These
modificationsmayaffectaquaticorganismsandasa
further consequence negatively alter marine
biocenosis. In some
cases the seascape is radically
modified. At the same time, individual types of
technicalactivitiescaninterfereonewitheachother.
Maritimemanagement,includingspatialplanning
[Hajduk 2009], should take into account possible
modificationsofthenaturalfeaturesofmarinespace.
Additionally, there is the need of developing of
appropriate
standards for marine environmental
impactassessments(justasonlandareasatpresent).
In this paper examples of marine space
disturbances caused by typical current non‐
navigational technical activities in these areas are
described.
2 NON‐NAVIGATIONALTECHNICAL
ACTIVITIES
2.1 Windenergyconversion
Marine shallow areas (up to depth of several
dozen
meters) appear suitable for installation numerous
power stations for conversion wind energy into
electricity. Present individual offshore wind turbine
can generate electrical power up to 6 MW, which
means that 100 windmills can produce energy
comparatively to large power unit of classical
electrical power plant. Rapid growing of electrical
powerproductionbyoffshorewindmillgeneratorsis
observedinEUcountries.Inthemiddleof2013total
Europeanoffshorewindpowerproductionwas6,040
MW (EWEA 2013), whereas in 2020 is expected
150,000MW(Tillessen2010).
AlsotheBalticSearegionisconsideredasanarea
of intensive production of electricity
which is
expressed in the Global Offshore Wind Farms
Databaseavailableontheweb(GOWFD2013).Inthe
PolishExclusiveEconomicZonetosuitableareasfor
offshore wind farms belong slopes of Slupsk Bank
(proper Slupsk Bank is restricted as the Protected
Non-navigational Uses of the Sea Space: The Baltic
Sea case
Z.Otremba
GdyniaMaritimeUniversity,Gdynia,Poland
ABSTRACT:Somepartsoftheglobalocean
,
apartfromtheirtraditionaluse(maritimetransport,fishery,navy),
becomes suitable for other technical activities and investments (e.g. gas and electricity transmission, wind
farms, gas and oil extraction, gravel extraction, coastal protection). These activities interact with marine
environmentaswellascaninterferewithnavigation.Thispaperpresentsrelatingto
theBalticSealargescale
technicalactivitiesaswellaspointsuptheirpossibleindividualenvironmentaleffects.
http://www.transnav.eu
the International Journal
on Marine Navigation
and Safety of Sea Transportation
Volume 7
Number 4
December 2013
DOI:10.12716/1001.07.04.18
620
Area), Southern Middle Bank as well as Odra Bank.
Coastal areas are protected as environmentally
important, therefore cannot be consider as areas for
technical use for now. There are several dozen
applications (to the relevant authorities) for
permission to build windmill farms in the Polish
MarineAreas(Fig.1).
Figure1. A part of the Baltic Sea‐Polish Exclusive
Economic Zone with areas planed for marine wind farms
(updated May 2013 on the base of web [Ofshorepoland
2013].
One can point up various manifestations of
maritime wind farms from the point of view of
human activity in the sea areas (navigation, fishery,
aviation,tourism,military,terroristthreat)and from
the point of view of natural environment proper
functioning (influence of noise, electromagnetic
waves in air, magnetic field in the
water masses).
Additionally cable network between wind turbines
and the land energetic system is substantial. Above
mentionednoise(modificationofnaturalunderwater
acoustic field) is expected during installation phase
(mainly pile driving), in exploitation phase
(interaction between wind and wings of rotor, work
of the generators) and during removal phase
(explosivematerialsuse).Fornowthereisnoclearin
what range wind farm space can be used for other
humanactivities,forexampleforfishery.
2.2 Underwaterelectricitytransfer
Marine water masses can be used as a medium
transporting electrical energy. There are quite a few
energy transfer systems installed
in marine areas. If
theBalticSearegionisconsidered,sincesixtiethofXX
centuryseveralHighVoltageDirectCurrent(HVDC)
systems have been installed in which coastal
electrodes introduce electrical current into water
masses(Fig.2).Apartelectrodes,thesinglecorecable
operatingwithelectricalpotentialofseveralhundreds
ofkilovoltsinrelationtosurroundingwatermustbe
installedintheseabed.
Figure2.PresentandplannedHighVoltageDirectCurrent
(HVDC) electric power cables in the Baltic Sea (after
dissipatedsources).
SingleHVDCsystemisabletotransferelectricity
up to 600 MW (Andrulewicz at al. 2003). After
installation of planned wind farms (mentioned in
section 2.1), probably numerous of HVDC systems
will appear to transporting generated energy to the
land electric grids. Furthermore trans‐Baltic electric
duct will operate using HVDC
technique probably,
despitethefactthatworld‐electrical‐gridoperatewith
the alternating current (AC). DC energy transfer is
duetopossibilitiesofpresenttechniqueeconomically
better than traditional AC method (lower loss of
energyalongenergeticline).
RecentlyinstalledHVDCsystems(forexamplethe
SwePolLink), instead of electrodes,
uses so called
“return cable” (simply, electrodes are replaced by
cableoperatingwithlowelectricalpotential).
2.3 Oilandgasextraction
“Offshore drilling, deep sea mining, oil platform,
jack‐up rig, drillship” – there are popular terms
appearinginoilandgasproductioninmarineareas.
Therearealot
ofmarinetechnicalsystems‐floatable
and fixed – which are in use for hydrocarbons
extraction from deposits below the sea bottom
(NOAA2010).
Extraction devices are accompanied by ships,
whose mission is supervision for safety, technical
supply, collection and transport of excavated
material.Braziliancoast,Gulfof Mexico, Norwegian
Sea, North
Sea, west coast of southern Africa‐are
areas of greatest production of crude oil, whereas
northwestofAustralia,Israel‐Egyptcoast,Venezuela
coast,BrazilCoastandNorwegianSea–areasofgas
production.IntheBalticSeaonlyinthePolishandthe
Russianmarineareasoilandgasare
extracted.Inthe
Polish part of the Baltic Sea the Lotos Corporation
operates several dozen kilometers north of the
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Rozewie Cape. Russian D6 oil deposit is located 22
kmfromtheCuronianShoal(Russiancoast).
2.4 Gaspipelines
The seabed of above mentioned areas of
hydrocarbonsextractioniscoveredbydensepipeline
grids.
Not only for hydrocarbons extracted in the sea
areasmustbetransported though pipelines, because
marine
areasappearssuitableforpipelinetransportof
hydrocarbons from land to land. The NordStream
system may interfere with the shipping rout to the
Swinoujscie/Szczecin Port in the case of necessity of
deepeningofthefairway(SSP2010).
Figure4shows the route(morethan1000km)of
NordStream gas transporting
system, together with
pipelineconnectingtheoil/gasrigBalticBetawiththe
Polishcoast(tothepowerstationinWladysławowo).
2.5 Trafficconnections
The world’s longest marine traffic bridges are
planned (2015) between Qatar and Bahrain (40 km)
andbetweenHongKongandChina(50km,with5.5
kmof
submersedtunnel).IntheBalticregion4long
bridges exist: Oresund Bridge (7.85 km), Great Belt
Bridge–Eastern(6.79km),GreatBelt–Western(6.61
km)andOlandBridge(6.1km).OresundBridge(Fig.
5)isconnectedwithartificialislandandunderwater
tunnel(Fig.6).
Figure4.PresentandconsideredgaspipelinesintheBaltic
Sea.
Interesting solution of the traffic connection
through marine area is implemented in the Gulf of
Finland so called Saint Petersburg Flood Prevention
Facility Complex (former Leningrad Flood Barrier).
Figure 7 shows the location of this construction, in
which the tunnel beneath navigation canal is build.
Thisnavigationpasscanbeclosed
bythehugeflood
doors.
Figure5. Oresund Bridge as seascape modifier (by the
author).
Figure6.ComponentsoftheOresundConnection.
Figure7.SaintPetersburgfloodbarrier.
2.6 Coastalprotection
Encroachment of the sea into the land is a natural
phenomenon in many points of the coastline in the
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world. Especially in the southern Baltic where land
immerses itself successively even 0.2 mm/year
(Uscinowicz 2011). The seashore is intensively
defendedinnumerousplacesalong the Polishcoast.
For example, in Jastrzebia Gora region (Figure 8),
where gabion techniques is implemented, coastal
protectioncannotdefinitelystoptheseatransgression
–
simply,coastalprotectionstructureswillsooneror
later destroyed. Destroying processes of coastal
structurecan beweakened by detached breakwaters
orunderwatersills.Thoseunderwaterstructurescan
beplacedevenseveralhundredmetersfromseashore
line.
Figure8. Example of poorly effective coastal protection:
partly destroyed gabions at Jastrzebia Góra (photo by the
author).
2.7 Othertechnicalactivities
Despite of above described human activities in the
Polishmarineareas,otherthannavigationandcoastal
structures for shipping, aregravel extraction (region
ofSlupskBankandMiddleSouthernBank),undersea
fiber‐optics telecommunication cables, and military
areasonthewestofUstka.Additionally,intheworld
scale, floating transloading terminals should also be
classifiedastheplaceoftechnicalactivityinfluencing
marineenvironment(CARGOTEC2012).
3 DISCUSSION
3.1 Navigationalproblems
Marinetechnicalinvestmentsarealsodiscussedfrom
pointofviewofnavigation(Weintritetal.2012).Itis
expectedthatthecompetitionformarinespacewill
be
observedinthefuture‐especiallyfortheoceanshelf
and for shallow seas (for example the Baltic Sea).
Anyway, at the present, also traditionalusers of the
sea(navigation,fishery)areforcedtosearchthespace
forthem.Thereforecloselydelimitedshippingroutes
are formed, with the land continuous navigational
assistance. High developed current technologies
allow reducing the risks caused by introduction of
technical objects into marine areas. Only in
emergency conditions‐like sudden failure of
equipment or extremely bad weather conditions‐
marine technical constructions can escalate serious
hazardstonavigation(Gucma2009).
If the coastal technical defense measures are
considered, only constructi ons put forward (several
hundreds meters) into the sea (wave breakers) can
endanger small vessels (tourist yachts, motorboats,
fishingboats).
3.2 Environmentalconcerns
Any human activity in the sea areas impacts the
natural environment. The issue of hazards from
navigation is known for several dozen decades
already‐InternationalConvention
forthePrevention
of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL) regulates
problems connected with negative influence of
maritime transport on environment. However, the
otherthannavigationactivitiesarepoorlyanalyzedin
relation to the safety of the sea. Some adverse or
beneficial effects can be predicted before the
construction of the particular
installation.
Unfortunately some of negative effect may be
unpredictable for a given sea area. Therefore, a
thorough study in the design phase, construction
phaseandinoperationphaseisneeded.
Every type of technical construction has its own
specific impact on environment. For example, if
HVDCsystemisconsidered,thefirst
probleminthe
projectingphasewastherouteofthesystem.Alotof
discussions affected final decision (Fig. 9).Figure 10
showsprincipleofoperationoftypicalmarineHVDC
whereas Figure 11 presents distribution of the
magneticinduction(horizontalcomponent)abovethe
cables(intheSwePolLinkcase).Fish
profilevoltagein
the vicinity of electrode is shown in Fig. 12. Some
speciesoffishmaybeaffectedbyelectricalcurrentin
thevicinityofelectrode.
Figure9. Evolution of projected route of the SwePolLink
(Andrulewicz at al. 2003). The third is the final one – it
bypasseschemicalweaponsdepositsintheBornholmDeep
(1)andprotectedareasintheSlupskBank(2).
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Figure10.SchemeofsubmarineHVDCconnection.
Figure11. Distribution of magnetic induction above the
HVDCcables(calculatedbytheauthor).
Figure12. Fish profile voltage vs. distance from the
electrodeintheBalticSeawaters(calculatedbytheauthor).
The question of environmental impact of marine
technicalconstructionhasmanyaspectsandrequires
moreintensivestudy(Otremba&Andrulewicz2007).
4 FINALREMARKS
Thetimeofnewtypesoftechnicalintensiveactivities
atseabegins‐abovepresentedexamplesshowsthat
theseaspaceisanattractiveareaforinvestmentsthat
havehistoricallybeenimplementedonlyontheland.
Theirinteractionwithnavigation,fisheryandnatural
environment is in intensive analyzing at present,
therefore this study indicates limited number of
problems only. One can indicate that there are also
other types of problems associated with the
introduction of large‐scale technical
structures into
marineareas‐forexamplefinancialcompensationfor
lostfishingareasorelongatedshippingroutesoreven
limitationofthetourismindustry.
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