TRIDENT – Technology Based Impact Assessment Tool for Sustainable, Transparent Deep Sea Mining Exploration and Exploitation: A Project Overview

By creating a dependable, transparent, and cost-effective system for forecasting and ongoing environmental impact monitoring of exploration and exploitation activities in the deep sea, TRIDENT seeks to contribute to the sustainable exploitation of seabed mineral resources. In order to operate autonomously in remote locations under harsh conditions and send real-time data to authorities in charge of granting licenses and providing oversight, this system will create and integrate new technology and innovative solutions. The efficient monitoring and inspection system that will be created will abide by national and international legal frameworks. At the sea surface, mid-water, and the bottom, TRIDENT will identify all pertinent physical, chemical, geological, and biological characteristics that must be monitored. It will also look for data gaps and suggest procedures for addressing them. These are crucial actions to take in order to produce accurate indicators of excellent environmental status, statistically robust environmental baselines, and thresholds for significant impact, allowing for the standardization of methods and tools. In order to monitor environmental parameters on mining and reference areas at representative spatial and temporal scales, the project consortium will thereafter develop and test an integrated system of stationary and mobile observatory platforms outfitted with the most recent automatic sensors and samplers. The system will incorporate high-capacity data processing pipelines able to gather, transmit, process, and display monitoring data in close to real-time to facilitate prompt actions for preventing major harm to the environment. Last but not least, it will offer systemic and technological solutions for predicting probable impacts of applying the developed monitoring and mitigation techniques.