Energy and marine consultancy ABL has been appointed to support Interreg North Sea’s multilateral NORSAIC project, which aims to improve cooperation and governance in marine spatial planning for a sustainable North Sea region in the face of climate change.
Co-funded by the European Union, NORSAIC will provide maritime insight in support of North Sea maritime spatial planning initiatives, enhancing both collaboration and capacity for innovation in the face of climate change. NORSAIC’s focus areas include offshore wind installations, land-sea interactions and fishing vessel activities.
The initiative includes partners from Germany, the Netherlands, France, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium and supporting organisations from UK and Norway
ABL’s German operation, based in Hamburg, has been appointed to the project to provide comprehensive shipping activity assessments, including quantitative modelling of future maritime activity and technical expertise in areas including climate change resilience, windfarm operations and maintenance and commercial shipping traffic behaviours.
“We look forward to lending our maritime expertise to support this important multinational collaborative initiative. Reaching our climate goals relies on a coordinated approach to common maritime spatial planning objectives in offshore regions like the North Sea. NORSAIC is a crucial initiative to help ensure that future planning decisions are grounded in the best available understanding of marine trends,” Tilo Klappenbach, ABL’s country manager in Germany told The Voice of Renewables.
This latest scope builds on ABL’s previous work with Germany’s Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (Bundesamt für Seeschifffahrt und Hydrographie – BSH), performing navigational risks assessments of North Sea offshore wind development sites. While the project is managed by ABL’s German team, the work is carried out by the company’s global Ports and Harbours consultancy team with specialist support from sister company OWC. This team combines expertise in maritime spatial planning, maritime operations and shipping analysis to provide a tailored consultancy solution to the NORSAIC project requirements.
ABL is the energy and marine consultancy branch of global consultancy and Oslo-listed ABL Group ASA.
