Evidence of Sediment Mobility and Bedform Migration: Case Study from Hollandse Kust West Offshore Wind Farm

Numerous studies have demonstrated that understanding sediment mobility and bedform migration is a crucial factor in the design and construction of offshore wind farms. Sediment mobility refers to the movement of seafloor sediment and such dynamic processes pose risks to the infrastructure integrity. The mobility of the sediments can lead to exposure, spanning, and/or increased burial of infrastructure and could affect both construction feasibility and long-term operational reliability of offshore wind farms.

The Hollandse Kust West (HKW) Wind Farm Zone (WFZ) offshore Netherlands has been surveyed extensively by the Dutch Hydrographic Office. The presence of large sand deposits distributed as complex bedforms have been observed in this part of the North Sea. Fugro performed the Shallow Geophysical Site Investigation in 2019. More recently and on behalf of Ecowende, Fugro conducted a UXO & shallow geophysical Pre-Construction Survey on Site VI in 2024.

The opportunity of accessing the historical 2019 MBES dataset, has allowed for comparisons with 2024 MBES dataset acquired for Ecowende using Deep Learning and Machine Learning tools from ESRI. This contribution aims to present evidence of sediment mobility and bedform migration observed within the Array Site Area in HKW Site VI over a five-year period.