The North Sea is filling up with thousands of concrete and steel structures—wind turbines, oil platforms, pipelines—and no one has yet worked out how to balance their environmental damage against their climate benefits. This project, SMART-Values, aims to give regulators and industry a clear framework for making those trade-offs explicit rather than accidental. The problem is that the energy transition itself creates a conflict: building more offshore wind farms and carbon storage facilities can harm marine ecosystems, disrupt fisheries, and alter carbon storage in seabed sediments. Current decisions about where to put these structures, whether to remove old oil platforms or leave them as artificial reefs, and how to design new ones are made without a systematic way to compare ecological, social, and economic costs. If successful, the research will produce decision-support tools that let government agencies and energy companies see, for example, whether leaving a decommissioned platform in place boosts fish populations enough to offset its long-term pollution risk, or whether a particular wind farm layout minimises harm to seabird colonies while still generating enough power. The work couples ecosystem modelling with field studies on blue carbon, biodiversity, and noise around structures, then adds monetary and community-based valuations. The result could change how the UK plans its marine energy infrastructure—quietly shaping the seabed layout, decommissioning policies, and compensatory habitat schemes that most people never see but that determine whether offshore wind expansion helps or harms the ocean.
View original technical description
Strategic management of MArine ARTificial structures and their Values (SMART-Values) Our Vision: A just, nature-positive, and economically efficient energy transition that enhances biodiversity and safeguards ecosystem services, including fisheries and carbon sequestration Thousands of marine artificial structures (MAS) have been installed in the marine environment, including for oil and gas, offshore wind, hydrogen, carbon capture and storage and compensatory measures. With Net Zero aspirations driving a shift towards low carbon technology, the number of MAS is set to grow exponentially, with aging structures set for decommissioning. As these structures have significant footprints at all life-cycle stages this transition will inevitably lead to environmental, social, and economic trade-offs. There is an evident risk that our actions to address the climate crisis could exacerbate the biodiversity crisis, and also lead to a range of detrimental impacts across wider sectors. This tension is recognised, for example by Clean Power 2030: Action Plan: A new era of clean electricity, “the government is committed to accelerating to net zero, to delivering clean power by 2030, and also to restoring nature”, and The Crown Estate’s Marine Delivery Route map which aims to “incentivise best environmental practice”. To address this risk there is a need to better understand the economic, social and ecological values of MAS, how they are embedded in governance structures, and how these values change under realistic future scenarios. Previous research has demonstrated the importance of repurposing and designing MAS to contribute to carbon removal and biodiversity targets. However, evidence gaps remain including impacts on ecological functioning and cumulative effects, and interactions with climate change, fisheries, cross-industry marine management, and social priorities. SMART-Values builds on previous and ongoing research to address these gaps, harmonising the energy transition with broader environmental, social, and economic goals, through the application of natural capital and valuation approaches. Focusing on blue carbon, fisheries and biodiversity, SMART-Values couples state-of-the-art modelling with innovative field and analytical techniques, bringing in wider economic and social values using monetary valuation and interactive deliberative approaches. Embedding the research in a policy context, changes in values will be determined under a range of co-designed management scenarios. A suite of robust and accessible Decision Support Tools will be generated facilitating public and private sector decision-makers in evaluating trade-offs, minimising negative impacts, and exploiting nature-positive opportunities. This transdisciplinary approach brings together expertise in natural capital and ecosystem services, environmental and ecological economics, social science, marine ecology and modelling, governance, law, digital technologies and engineering, with committed support from government and industry. SMART-Values outcomes include: A mapping and gap analysis of the evidence, stakeholder and governance landscapes, establishing a MAS Community of Practice across public, private, academic and wider community sectors. A Natural Capital framework integrating changes in the economic, social and environmental values associated with different MAS management scenarios State of the art predictive ecosystem modelling, quantifying changes in ecosystem function and services, with associated trade-offs across climate scenarios, sectors and scales under different management strategies. Targeted analysis and field studies to evidence changes in blue carbon, biodiversity, contaminants and noise around structures, and to evaluate statutory compensatory measures. State-of-the-art value assessments based on pluralistic and integrated valuation approaches, combining biophysical, sociocultural and monetary indicators. Co-developed decision support tools which highlight the benefits and risks to nature, economy and society, supporting nature positive decision-making
Plain English summaries and category classifications on this site are generated by AI and may not perfectly reflect the original research.
Is something wrong? Let us know