Editorial

Geohazards (geological features or processes) can be a risk to oil and gas infrastructure, and to the environment. Landslides, fault ruptures, gas/fluid expulsions, adverse soil conditions and iceberg scouring, to name but a few, are examples of geological hazard. In addition to these examples, turbidity currents are also considered a geohazard: for example, see the article on the monitoring of the vibration of free spans in the Ormen Lange pipeline in the September 2007 issue of Hydrointernational. Geohazards have caused great damage in the past, and the increase in high-tech technology, bigger platforms, complicated sub-sea infrastructure (all resulting in higher capital investments) and growing environmental awareness have made the necessity for good geohazard assessment even more important. This requires data from various instrument sources such as multi-beam, side-scan, sub-bottom profilers, gravity and magnetics. These data can be obtained not only from surface vessels but also from the sky where, for example, satellite synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images can show features such as sea surface oil slicks possibly caused by hydrocarbon seepage and, near the sea floor, AUVs can bring instruments closer to the deeper sea floor thereby providing greater detail. The role of GIS in the process of managing, analysing and visualising multiple geo-referenced (i.e. combining) data sets cannot be passed over, as is also the case with the integration of expertise from geoscience disciplines such as geophysics, geomorphology, geology and geotechnics. However, data availability made possible by sharing (and if possible open access), and the sharing of expertise between research institutes and the private sector are important for good project feasibility studies and engineering design. The Norwegian Mareano programme is a good example of making information and knowledge accessible by, among other things, co-ordinating existing programmes in the public and private sectors and, in particular, integrating oil industry data (for example, see 8 1): a good example to be followed!
Last May at the XVIIth IHO Conference, our Editorial Advisory Board (EAB) member captain Robert Ward was elected to become one of the directors of the IHB, next to vice-admiral Alexandros Maratos, who was re-elected at that same conference as president of the IHB. We thank Robert Ward heartily for his time on the EAB, his advice and his views and, knowing Robert, we are convinced he will keep contributing.
We would like to welcome Mark Sinclair from Australia as a new member of our EAB. Mark Sinclair is the programme manager for Tenix LADS Corporation. He is responsible for airborne Lidar hydrographic surveys conducted with the LADS Mk II system in Europe, the Middle East, North America and Australasia. Prior to this, he served as a commander in the Royal Australian Navy Hydrographic Service, he was posted as commanding officer of the survey ships Paluma and Brunei , and was officer-in-charge of the RAN LADS Unit and Hydrographic School. One of his interests is sailing, and he has conducted single-handed crossings of the Tasman Sea navigating by sextant.

Enjoy your read,

Leeke van der Poel, editor-in-chief, e-mail: [email protected]