NOAH

About the NOAH project

Motivation

Sustainable development of shelf sea space needs to resolve the conflict between use and protection of natural resources. Extant and new societal demands on shelf sea floors (e.g. wind farming) have impacts on the physical environment, biogeochemistry and biology of this important ecosystem compartment. Competing claims for sea floor space, decisions towards resource exploitation, and assessment of and risks to good environmental status need an information basis. Such a basis is a systematic inventory of properties, functions and services provided by the sea floor on a broad spectrum of spatial and temporal scales. NOAH will develop a comprehensive geo-referenced inventory of seafloor properties in the German Bight ("habitat atlas").

NOAH Consortium

The NOAH consortium gathers expertise in geology, benthic ecology, environmental chemistry and biogeochemistry, environmental modeling, fisheries science, economy and geographical information systems. It includes research institutions and universities as well as federal agencies charged with monitoring and status evaluation. It is coordinated by the Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht (HZG). The partners are the HZG, the Universität Bremen, the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency, Senckenberg am Meer, the Thünen Institute, the Universität Hamburg and the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences. Many of the institutions involved perform applied research into coastal matters in their own institutional programmes, providing for a sustainable collaboration in the future.

Project details

NOAH Synthesis Final Report 2019 (33,9 MB)
Acronym:NOAH
Full title:North Sea - Observation and Assessment of Habitats
Contract number:03F0742
Start:April 2016
End:March 2019
Duration:36 months
Funding:Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) under the Research for Sustainable Development Framework Programme (FONA)
  
NOAH Synthesis Interim Report 2017 (7,5 MB)
Acronym:NOAH 
Full title:North Sea - Observation and Assessment of Habitats 
Contract number:03F0742 
NOAH Synthesis Interim Report 2016 (4,3 MB)
Acronym:NOAH
Full title:North Sea - Observation and Assessment of Habitats
Contract number:03F0742
Start:April 2016
End:December 2016
Duration:9 months
Funding:Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) under the Research for Sustainable Development Framework Programme (FONA)
  
NOAH Final Report - 1st phase (3,6 MB)
Acronym:NOAH
Full title:North Sea - Observation and Assessment of Habitat
Contract number:03F0670A
Start:April 2013
End:April 2016
Duration:36 months
Funding:Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) under the Research for Sustainable Development Framework Programme (FONA)
  
NOAH Synthesis Proposal (1,9 MB)
Acronym:NOAH
Full title:North Sea - Observation and Assessment of Habitats
Contract number:03F0670A
Start:April 2016
End:April 2019
Duration:36 months
Funding:Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) under the Research for Sustainable Development Framework Programme (FONA)
  
NOAH Phase 1 Proposal (1,9 MB)
Acronym:NOAH
Full title:North Sea - Observation and Assessment of Habitat
Contract number:03F0670A
Start:April 2016
End:April 2019
Duration:36 months
Funding:Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) under the Research for Sustainable Development Framework Programme (FONA
  

Coordination and Management

NOAH is coordinated by the Institute of Coastal Reseach at Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht, Germany.

Project manager

Dr. Frank Bockelmann

Phone: +49 (0)4152 87 1881

E-mail contact

Online content and project management

Dr. Marcus Lange E-mail contact

Project coordinator (retired)

Prof. Dr. Kay Emeis