London Array Offshore Wind Farm benthic monitoring

We completed the three-year post-construction benthic monitoring programme required as part of the Marine Licence conditions for the London Array (LAW) Offshore Windfarm located in the outer Thames Estuary.

This substantial programme at the world’s largest operational offshore wind farm involved collection of grab and trawl samples at nearly 300 locations. This was followed by macrobenthic and Particle Size Distribution (PSD) analysis of samples to test for potential impacts within the wind farm and its environs as well as areas close to the turbines themselves.

We subsequently conducted a detailed analysis of datasets spanning the pre- and post-construction periods to validate the predictions made during the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).