Objective
The MIDAS project addresses fundamental environmental issues relating to the exploitation of deep-sea mineral and energy resources; specifically polymetallic sulphides, manganese nodules, cobalt-rich ferromanganese crusts, methane hydrates and the potential mining of rare earth elements. These new industries will have significant impacts on deep-sea ecosystems, in some cases extending over hundreds of thousands of square kilometres. Scientific knowledge is needed urgently to develop guidelines for industry ensuring wealth creation and Best Environmental Practice. MIDAS will assess the nature and scales of the potential impacts including 1) physical destruction of the seabed by mining, the creation of mine tailings and the potential for catastrophic slope failures from methane hydrate exploitation, 2) the potential effects of particle-laden plumes in the water column, and 3) the possible toxic chemicals that might be released by the mining process. Knowledge of the impacts will be used to address the key biological unknowns, such as connectivity between populations, impacts of the loss of biological diversity on ecosystem functioning, and how quickly the ecosystems will recover. The information derived will be used to guide recommendations for best practice, iterating with MIDAS industry partners and the wider stakeholder community to ensure that solutions are practical and cost-effective. We will engage with European and international regulatory organisations to take these recommendations forward into legislation in a timely fashion. A major element of MIDAS will be to develop methods and technologies for 1) preparing baseline assessments of biodiversity, and 2) monitoring activities remotely in the deep sea during and after exploitation (including ecosystem recovery). The MIDAS partnership represents a unique combination of scientists, industry, social scientists, legal experts, NGOs and SMEs.
Fields of science
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- social sciencespolitical sciencespolitical policiescivil societynongovernmental organizations
- natural scienceschemical sciencesinorganic chemistrytransition metals
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringmining and mineral processing
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesecologyecosystems
- natural scienceschemical sciencesorganic chemistryaliphatic compounds
Programme(s)
Call for proposal
FP7-ENV-2013-two-stage
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Funding Scheme
CP - Collaborative project (generic)Coordinator
SO51 0HN Romsey Awbridge
United Kingdom
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Participants (33)
SN2 1EU SWINDON WILTSHIRE
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24148 Kiel
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29280 Plouzane
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SO17 1BJ Southampton
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9901-862 Horta
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27570 Bremerhaven
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4068 Stavanger
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60325 Frankfurt
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9000 Gent
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0855 Oslo
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1797 SZ DEN HOORN TEXEL
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SW7 5BD London
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00196 Roma
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PA37 1QA Dunbeg Oban
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08007 Barcelona
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28359 Bremen
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9019 Tromso
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02 123 WARSAW
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08197 SANT CUGAT DEL VALLES
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5020 Bergen
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1077 KB Amsterdam
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8005 139 Faro
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SO40 7AP Southampton
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75252 PARIS
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17003 Girona
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2961 AW KINDERDIJK
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Participation ended
OX10 9RB WALLINGFORD
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EC3A 8AA LONDON
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2070 Zwijndrecht
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30655 Hannover
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117997 MOSKVA
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OX10 9RB Wallingford
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08197 VALLDOREIX
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