WP 1
This WP holds all the management aspects of the project, namely the project management tasks and activities with the European Commission, technical management and risk assurance and evaluations. Important topics such as Ethics and Data Management are also addressed as dedicated tasks.
The main goal is to manage project coordination activities between all partners. This includes to assure and verify the achievement of TRIDENT’s project operational and technical objectives and deliverables quality. Other goals are to promote and establish an interface between the Project Executive Committee, external users and the stakeholders’ network, as well as to ensure compliance with ethical principles, the European Union (EU) data management requirements and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Actions for this WP:
- Establish a project management structure in a way that technical issues are managed separately from finance and administration.
- Ensure that data and technical management is adequately supervised by each WP Leader and that information flows dynamically and timely between all concerned members.
- Ensure that the Project Executive Committee will continuously have quality assurance and project risk management in place and implement, if necessary, contingency plans.
- Develop stakeholder engagement actions and management and liaise with TRIDENT’s Advisory Board.
- Gather environmental and sustainability policy and legal framework at European, national and international levels, including the regulations and recommendations of the International Seabed Authority, regarding the seabed, the ocean floor and the subsoil.
- Develop an Ethics Compliance Strategy which includes the initial completion and continuous maintenance of an ethics assessment, and the definition of early risk mitigating and compliance measures.
WP 2
This WP will design a system of protocols to establish an environmental baseline and demonstrate and improve the baseline through testing, validation and refinement. WP2 defines the environmental parameters that should be measured based on probable impacts determined though a review of scientific literature and a stakeholder workshop. Secondly, the framework of the baseline is determined through a review of European and ISA regulations pertaining to seabed disturbance especially with respect to deep sea mining.
Finally, an environmental baseline will determine areas of potential susceptibility to impact, and background environmental parameter variability from which threshold level of impact tolerance can be determined. This information feeds into the design and setting of the real-time monitoring protocol and technology.
The main objective is to determine an environmental baseline to inform parameter settings in the real-time monitoring technology and protocol and measure impact.
The actions for this WP are to:
- Categorise and describe deep sea seabed possible impacts arising from disturbances.
- Define the environmental parameters that should be measured based on potential impacts.
- Analyse existing regulations pertinent to environmental baseline establishment in the deep sea.
- Develop an environmental baseline approach for deep sea disturbances incorporating a biotope model.
- Assess existing historical data, including a gap analysis, and identification of environmentally sensitive habitats.
- Conduct an environmental baseline assessment with new and historic data.
WP 3
WP3 is tasked at designing and specifying the monitoring system. It gathers information from domain specialists and translates them into a configuration of sensors, platforms, communications and display system that will be optimised to monitor the impacts arising from potential activities such as deep sea mining.
The main objectives are to define the architecture of the monitoring system, to specify the capabilities of the sensor suite, communications and visualisation system, and to advise on the design of the demonstration project.
The main actions are to:
- Forecast the magnitude and length scale of disturbances arising from exploitation of deep sea minerals.
- Design a modular architecture to enable monitoring of disturbances, on the seafloor and in the water column, over a range of length-scales and, hence, define the best approach to real-time monitoring of mining disturbances for each of the three different deep-seafloor mineral deposit scenarios.
- Specify the sensitivity, precision, and accuracy of sensor measurements, as well as the spatial, temporal scales, and frequency needed. Detail the vehicle platforms, sensors, samplers, flight control, and communication systems for gathering spatial/temporal data and the relationship of point source observations to sensitive sites.
- Define the requirements for communications, data handling, command, and control of the system elements, and their integration into an early warning visualization and decision-making system.
- Identify potential strategies to mitigate against harmful impacts arising from deep sea mining.
- Advise on the implementation of the demonstration experiment.
WP 4
This work package forms the core of project TRIDENT and will provide the innovative technological breakthrough that is essential to enable a cost effective and near real-time monitoring of impacts arising from deep sea activities.
WP4 aims to develop and integrate key components such as smart AUVs, gliders, and benthic landers with novel sensors and wireless communication. It will utilize technologies including sensors, wireless energy transfer, command and control, and underwater navigation. Functional prototypes will be tested and validated in real-world scenarios. Instead of relying on expensive fixed grids, WP4 will create smart behaviours for mobile platforms, enabling adaptive mission planning and data reporting. A key objective is to develop an early warning system that will be beneficial for operators and regulators.
The main actions on this WP are to:
- Develop and implement sensing systems for deep sea monitoring of biogeochemical and acoustic parameters.
- Develop and test a real-time recording device for moving seabed asset.
- Develop and test an innovative dust-trap sensing system for long-term recording.
- Develop and test an Underwater Wireless Communications Infrastructure.
- Develop and test a Dynamic infrastructure for underwater navigation, monitoring, energy transfer and storage.
- Develop and test an environmental management visualisation system.
- Develop and test an adaptive sampling and plume tracking strategies for fixed and mobile observing platforms (static devices, AUVs and gliders) that will be equipped with appropriate sensors.
- Incorporate advanced sensing technology into mobile deep sea observatories.
- Develop a RF-ROV with a high-tech sensor for close-quarter monitoring.
WP 5
This WP is tasked to undertake a scaled representation of anthropogenic seabed interactions to provide the environmental monitoring and impact assessment system with quantifiable and verifiable data towards the establishment of monitoring protocols.
The main objective is to demonstrate the final integrated monitoring system consisting of environmental baseline, technological assets, communications protocols, real-time monitoring, operational and environmental decision support systems and impact assessment.
The highlighted actions for this WP are to:
- Develop scaled source terms for demonstrations, including sound sources, illumination and benign tracers to mimic sediment plumes and toxicity effects.
- Undertake field verification tests of the fully integrated system.
- Undertake the scaled experiments according to the Environmental Monitoring and Management Plan and implementation of relevant mitigation solutions to verify the appropriateness of the protocols developed.
- Measure the environmental variables during, and immediately after, the experiments.
- Compare measurements against the established baseline to assess the immediate impacts, and against models to evaluate predictive accuracies.
- Assess the performance of the monitoring system and its reporting mechanisms against a set of metrics.
WP 6
WP6 will disseminate, share, and transfer the results and knowledge to a wide range of audiences including policy makers, industry, stakeholders, European projects and the general public to incorporate all relevant concerns into the policy making process and encourage stakeholders to adopt the results generated. Exploitation measures will enable the best use of research results in decision-making in local contexts and at the national and European level as well as for commercial purposes.
WP6 aims to maximize the impact of the research findings during and beyond the project closure. It will disseminate results to broader audiences, explore pathways to market for project outcomes and innovations, and engage in networking and knowledge exchange with other projects and initiatives in deep sea environmental impact assessment domains.
The main actions for this WP are to:
- Create and manage the Communication, Dissemination and Exploitation plans and social media accounts.
- Create links and synergies with similar projects to maximize the impact and contribute to have a more efficient and strong European Innovation on deep sea themes.
- Use of Scenarios, Focus Groups and Delphi Surveys will help to determine a plan for the technological developments and implementation, including further research opportunities.
- Develop business models to support individual and group exploitation targets.
