Environmental Monitoring at the Maren Wave Power Test Site off the Island of Runde, Western Norway : Planning and Design

This paper provides a general description of theenvironmental monitoring programme currentlyongoing at Vattenfall’s/Tussa’s wave power testsite "Maren", on the Norwegian west coast. Thepurpose of the environmental monitoring istwofold: (i) to monitor the potential impact of theMaren installation on the environment, therebyfulfilling the consent requirements of theNorwegian authorities, (ii) more generally, to gainexperiences about the design and management ofan environmental monitoring programme and testa variety of monitoring methodologies andequipment. The primary environmentalparameters assessed in the monitoring programmeinclude fish, benthos and seabird communities.Observations on marine mammals are includedmarginally and underwater noise measurementsare scheduled to be included at a later stage. Therationale for choosing the specific components ofthe monitoring programme is elucidated in thecontext of site specific environmental features, aswell as project-specific technical characteristics.Generally, the monitoring strategy follows amodified so-called BACI (Before-After, Control-Impact) design, i.e. takes place before and afterdeployment of the wave power devices and duringoperation over a period of approximately 3 years.A communication plan accompanies theprogramme and is considered an essentialprerequisite for transparency and publicacceptance of the programme.