MARine INfrastructures EFFects

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Today, marine infrastructures (MIs, such as dikes, quays, piers, groynes, and moorings), which are ubiquitous on the Channel coasts, do not incorporate the enhancement of coastal and transitional water ecosystems in their design and during construction. They sole purpose is to serve human activities: transport, fishing, coastal planning, shoreline protection, boating, and tourism. In fact, MIs are almost invariably replacing rich coastal ecosystems with artificial zones of poor biodiversity. These artificial areas create barriers to the larvae and juveniles of numerous species that use coastal ecosystems as shelters and nurseries before mature adults move to the open seas. To avoid these negative effects and create MIs that enhance the ecological status of coasts, it is necessary to help project owners, managers and engineers using new MI design methods. Starting with an environmental analysis, the designer tailors his or her strategy according to the needs of the site: the protection of a local threatened species or the global improvement of a site with common ecological characteristics. The creation of easy-to-use indicators and a global assessment method (in accordance with the Marine Strategy Framework Directive, Activities 3.4 and 4.4) will provide professionals with the tools they need for this analysis. Then, thanks to pilot operations (POs) in live conditions in France and the UK, the project will provide technical solutions for two strategic plans of action (WP3 for the protection of a target species and WP4 for the overall improvement of biodiversity). The integration of habitats for marine organisms directly into the MIs, which is the main innovation of the project, will be made possible by adaptating commonly used materials (concrete) to precise ecological specifications. These biomimetic MIs will be deployed in three large-scale POs and six experimental sites to test various types of MIs and ensure their transferability across the FCE area. The improvements brought about by these MIs will be measured according to the descriptors of the MSFD (measurement of biomass, biodiversity, abundance of fishery resources and eutrophication; monitoring of invasive species and analysis of trophic networks). The project aims for an overall improvement of at least 15% for all these indicators. The technologies developed will be tailored to both new construction and rehabilitation of existing MIs. The economic profitability of biomimetic MIs will be ensured by working with known materials and constructions techniques to ensure a negligible extra cost (<5%) as compared to existing technologies. We will ensure the fast-tomarket placing of our solutions by creating trainings (WP5) and business models for ordering institutions, engineers and construction companies.

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