Complex satellite monitoring of the nord stream gas pipeline construction

Abstract

Shipping The Nord Stream is a more than 1200-km long gas pipeline that will link Russia to Europe via the Baltic Sea from Vyborg in Russia to Greifswald in Germany. The construction process of the pipeline may cause, in particular, the following impact on the marine environment: (i) oil pollution due to the operation of ships, pipelay vessel, dredge ships and mechanisms in the sea; (ii) increase of suspended matter concentration due to dumping of sand and gravel, and dredging operations; (iii) provoking of local algal bloom events in summertime due to vertical mixing resulted from dumping and dredging works. Thus, there are two very important and interrelated tasks: (i) to monitor in the operational regime the ecological state of the sea at the site of the pipeline construction, and (ii) to discriminate between natural effects and anthropogenic impacts, related to the construction itself.