Monitoring the sand extraction on the Belgian Continental Shelf: methodology, results and expectations

Within the framework of a sustainable exploitation of the mineral resources on the Belgian Continental Shelf, the Belgian government has established a surveillance and monitoring program of the extraction activities and the impact on the environment. The up to date results show a concentration of the activities on the Kwintebank, resulting in a strong but merely local impact of the extractions on the bathymetry and sediments of the seafloor. In the near future the governmental control will evolve to a real-time surveillance and a dynamic and three-dimensional monitoring program to assure the f... Mehr ...