The Marine Data Exchange currently holds over 100 geotechnical surveys from more than 30 offshore renewables projects.

Geotechnical surveys are vital to the development of a project. For an offshore wind farm, geotechnical data should provide the necessary geological information and physical properties of the shallow soils to inform detailed design and installation for turbine foundations and export and inter-array cables.

Whilst the geotechnical data are currently held in disparate datasets on the Marine Data Exchange, the partnership approach with the British Geological Survey (BGS) aims to develop a method for bringing the historic datasets together into one standardised dataset where possible, and will work with industry to develop a consistent and standardised approach for the future delivery of geotechnical data.

BGS is a world-leading geological survey and global geoscience organisation, focused on public-good science for government and research to understand earth and environmental processes.

Improving data accessibility and interoperability is vital to improving our understanding of the marine environment and sub-seabed, and is key to the future of sustainable offshore development and asset management.

Standardising datasets encourages and facilitates the integration of data into future studies. This is not only for future commercial development-focused studies, but also for scientific research, including environmental research, to help build a more informed understanding of marine environments.

All geotechnical series (between 2001 and 2020) have been reviewed as part of the BGS Geotechnical Data project, to drive insight from the data to help understand its standardisation potential and to ensure that recommendations from the most recent datasets can be taken forward.