AGESCIC Ensuring coastal development works respect environmental norms

The aim of the AGESCIC project is to provide innovative and efficient solutions to lessening the impact of coastal development works on the marine ecosystem.

The project will devise a system featuring 3 ground-breaking and complementary solutions deployed at a real construction site:

• An autonomous buoy for measuring noise levels to evaluate the real-time quantity of suspended solids and level of biological noise in the ecosystems present.
• A complex multi-layered membrane to confine noise and suspended solids both over a wide area (several tens of thousands of m3) and in the near-field (such as when pile driving), which will be deployed for short and long periods, is compatible with sea tides, currents and storms and is highly efficient.
• A solution to reduce and compensate for the impact on fish, based on a mechanism for attracting larval fish that emits biological noise to manage – and protect – the flow of larvae at all stages of a development project.

The project will also assess the environmental and economic value of rolling out the system on a European scale.

Lastly, the project will produce guides and advice on norms/regulations aimed at public authorities and coastal development project leaders in the context of implementing the 2008 European directive MSFD.

The AGESCIC project is also officially recognised by the Pôle Mer Méditerranée cluster.