Gbmar’s comprehensive marine environmental services integrate consultancy with ecological surveys and laboratory testing. Focused on coastal, marine and estuarine environments, these services support infrastructure planning, consenting and development, environmental protection and resource management.
For a complete project management solution we provide a combination of marine planning, project management, data acquisition, survey, analysis and consultancy services. These capabilities are also available individually.
Expert marine environmental advice and support is critical to the development of any offshore project and dedicated research is required to perform assessments of potential environmental impacts on marine habitats.
With active cooperation between our specialists, we integrate our services and enable you to realise cost savings throughout your project. We work closely with other stakeholders to ensure that the project lifecycle is a positive experience for every party involved.
We aim for excellence and continually seek to improve our service; we do this through innovation, by integrating new technological advances and challenging processes and ideas. With dedicated specialists and ongoing research programmes, we manage challenging projects and provide expert advice.
Employing staff with in-depth knowledge of diverse market sectors, including renewable energy, oil and gas, aggregates, ports and harbours, cables and pipelines, leisure, the public sector and water industries, we provide marine environmental services that include:
Site selection, feasibility studies and risk mapping
Spatial analysis and interpretation
Mapping and charting
Spatial data management
Interactive GIS
Data management
We have wide-ranging capabilities in geotechnical engineering design and analysis relating to offshore structures, as summarised below.
Foundations for subsea structures
We deliver design projects in a wide range of water depths, soil stratigraphies and structure types. Structures are typically supported by mudmat foundations, with or without skirts, and may have suction-assisted installation. We routinely check the key criteria for foundation design – including installation, settlement and capacity – using well-developed analysis procedures. If needed, we can also carry out more detailed assessments using numerical modelling software.
Foundations for offshore platforms
We offer an integrated approach to the design of foundations for offshore platforms, from initial concept studies, through site investigation and characterisation to the detailed engineering design. Our holistic design approach includes assessing the in-place foundation capacity and response under design loads, and assessing and mitigating installation risk through advanced geotechnical engineering analysis.
Foundations for renewable energy structures
Our service combines constitutive modelling, advanced numerical analysis and geospatial analysis to achieve foundation optimisation across large offshore development areas. We developed our design approach in conjunction with industry research and development and in collaboration with academic partners. We offer state-of-the-art, bespoke design solutions for monopile, suction bucket and drilled and grouted pile foundation systems under monotonic and cyclic loading.
Mooring systems for floating facilities
Our experience in designing a range of anchor types enables us to provide informed advice on the appropriate anchoring system for a floating facility, based on the soil profile and project requirements.
We have in-depth experience with drag embedment anchors, suction anchors, torpedo anchors, suction embedded plate anchors, gravity anchors and anchor piles. We have also been involved in developing design software and academic research.
Pipeline-soil interaction
Our pioneering pipeline geotechnics technology delivers efficient designs that go above and beyond conventional code methods such as SAFEBUCK or DNV-RF-F114. We work closely with pipeline engineering firms to deliver tailored geotechnical support, efficiently integrated into the main pipeline design effort.
Our refined pipe-soil interaction analysis enables accurate design that reduces risk and uncertainty. This allows our clients to mitigate on-bottom instability, buckling and walking, and to achieve cost savings by minimising stabilisation and anchoring works.
Pipeline stability
We have wide experience in assessing pipeline stability during operation. We use this knowledge to provide advice on solutions such as pipeline burial (trenching, jetting and ploughing), based on a review of the pipeline loading conditions and ground conditions.
Assessment of jack-up foundations
We provide jack-up installation and in-place capacity analysis for jack-up structures. Our capabilities include specifying and supervising site investigation campaigns, as well as laboratory testing programmes tailored for jack-up foundation design.
We use this soil information to perform jack-up foundation capacity and installation assessments. We also apply spud-can penetration calculation methods – these include bearing-capacity approaches and detailed site-specific finite element (Abaqus) or finite difference (FLAC) analysis. We provide on-vessel support during spud-can penetration and pre-loading, with additional support provided by staff on standby in one of our global offices.
Scour assessments
We offer a range of studies relating to seabed mobility and scour. Our services include seabed morphology and mobility studies, sediment transport assessment and modelling, bedform mobility studies, geomorphological features characterisation, mass gravity flow (MGF) modelling and jet-trenching modelling.
Our team comprises consultants with a variety of specialist skills including geophysical interpretation, geospatial analysis, environmental analysis, engineering seismology, engineering geology and geohazards analysis. Fugro’s geotechnical engineers can tap into this diverse group of consultants within the global Fugro GeoConsulting team at any time, to make sure we always meet the specific requirements of our clients.
Our clients choose us because we are technical leaders in our industry and because our multi-disciplinary project teams have an excellent track record for:
Expert advice and guidance
Design optimisation and risk mitigation
Innovative design solutions
Refined analyses, leading to design optimisation and cost savings
Reducing project costs by ensuring foundation, anchoring and pipeline solutions are installed economically
Ensuring the long-term safety of your structure, by checking that the foundations can withstand all conditions throughout their working life.
