East Coast Of England Research Articles

Depositional Context as the Foundation to Determining the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic Archaeological Potential of Offshore Wind Farm Areas in the Southern North Sea

There is currently limited evidence on which to assess the submerged prehistoric potential in areas of renewable energy development. This paper presents a geomorphological approach to examine the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic archaeological potential in relation to the Round 3 offshore wind farm (OWF) areas of the southern North Sea. The depositional context and major stratigraphic correlations between the terrestrial sequence on east coast of Britain and offshore marine sequence of the southern North Sea are used to provide a first-order assessment for identifying horizons of archaeological interest in OWF zones. Using the examples Triton Knoll and East Anglia One OWF, the nature of renewable energy development on identified archaeological horizons is discussed, noting that any impact needs to be considered on a site-by-site basis. Studies are not only needed on the practical assessment of any development impact but also on the impacts of natural processes in OWF zones.

A tale of two ships: the Spanish Civil War reaches the British coast

On 2 November 1938 one of General Franco’s warships shelled and sank a Spanish merchant ship nine miles from the east coast of England. The captain and his family were rescued by the local lifeboat and the human story, as well as the proximity of the incident to the coast of Great Britain, aroused considerable public interest there. Although not in itself a particularly momentous occurrence in such a destructive war, the sequence of events leading up to the convergence of the two ships on a distant coastline does cast some light on a most neglected aspect of that war—the struggle between the opposing navies to impede the transport of essential supplies to the enemy’s ports. It also has ramifications involving naval intelligence, maritime law and the international tensions affecting seafaring nations during the conflict. The political fallout in the UK hinged on the debate as to whether the episode constituted an act of piracy. The subsequent fates of the captain and crew of the sunken ship reflect the ethos of the times. The encounter is most unlikely to have been random and although conspiracy theories are extremely attractive and there is no shortage of candidates, it is unlikely that the identity of the conspirators will ever be known.

The Charters of the Cinque Ports – Are They Still Needed?

The Cinque Ports were a collection of ports on the east coast of England which - from early times - were granted, by charter, a number of Crown prerogatives in return for providing a ship service to the Crown. The earliest charter still extant dates from 1278. However, there may have existed charters granted by sovereigns to some - or all - of the Cinque Ports going back to the time of Edward the Confessor (1042-66). The original Cinque Ports were the ports of Hastings, Dover, Sandwich, New Romney and Hythe. To these five ports were added - probably prior to 1210 - the towns of Winchelsea and Rye. And to these were later added corporate and non-corporate members (or limbs), being other smaller ports. The heyday of the Cinque Ports was in medieval times when they provided a vital navy for the protection of the realm. Today, the Cinque Ports, and their charters, still exist. However, the purpose of this article is to review the terms and meaning of these charters, in order to determine whether they are now obsolete and should be cancelled. That is the conclusion.

Sound and Music in the Works of Randolph Stow

This article considers the many ways in which sound and music resonate through the works of Australian writer Randolph Stow (1935–2010), offering a broad, contextual perspective on the ways in which music and words, and often place as well, are intertwined. It is a rich subject for exploration, as much of Stow’s literary output uses music and sound to great effect. Named pieces of music are used as a means of locating fiction in time and place. Though born in Geraldton, Western Australia, Stow’s affiliation with his distant British ancestry has had a profound impact on his work, and images of Scottish pipers, hymns and drums reverberate through his words. In the works set in Australia the landscape evoked is a sonorous one. It thrums with the sounds of old mills, cockatoos, gurgling tanks and imported drawing-room pianos. His literary output shifts from aboriginal mission stations (To the Islands, 1958) to drought-ravaged Australian desert towns (Tourmaline, 1963). The article focuses primarily on Stow’s poetic novels, including the autobiographical The Merry-Go-Round in the Sea (1965) as well as his later allegorical works set on the east coast of England (The Girl Green as Elderflower, 1980) and The Suburbs of Hell (1984), which last novel is structured as a Brittenesque chamber opera, in a series of short acts and interludes.

A 150-year record of coastline dynamics within a sediment cell: Eastern England

Coastal sediment cells reflect processes operating at a range of scales, but it is the medium spatial and temporal scales (decades to centuries) that are of greatest interest for coastal management. This paper focuses on coastline position change within a single sediment cell over 150years where the geomorphology includes cliffs, beaches and saltmarshes. The focus is the east coast of England from Flamborough Head to Gibraltar Point. Although the updrift sector of this sediment cell has been studied for well over a century, the downdrift sector has attracted significantly less attention. Using topographic profiles, bathymetric profiles, aerial photographs and historical maps we mapped coastline erosion and accretion using the Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS) and calculated volumetric changes for different morphometric units. Rapid erosion of the updrift Holderness cliffs has been counterbalanced with accretion on beaches along the downdrift Lincolnshire coast. The amount of accretion in Lincolnshire corresponds to around 29% of the volume of sediment eroded from Holderness. Much of the eroded cliff material is likely to be deposited temporarily into nearshore and offshore sand banks before being redistributed by cross-shore currents. An exploration of storm surge impact on long-term erosion and accretion rates showed no clear relationship between storm surge frequency and change in coastline position, however this may be in part due to the relative timing of storm occurrence and data acquisition. The Jenkinson daily weather type classification was found to be a reasonable proxy for the occurrence of strong onshore winds which may offer scope for further investigation of the role of forcing factors over time periods beyond the length of the meteorological and tidal station records. Winter North Atlantic Oscillation phase was not a good indicator of storminess on the east coast of England but may be a useful proxy for quiescence.

Prediction of time-evolving sand ripples in shelf seas

The ability to predict the presence and physical properties of small-scale sand ripples on the sea bed is important for determining the bed roughness felt by currents and waves, for sediment transport applications, and for acoustic applications. A fully time-evolving model is presented for predicting the height, length and orientation of sand ripples generated by currents, waves or both, which includes processes dealing with threshold of motion, ripple wash-out and biological degradation. We believe that this is currently the only predictor to feature all these properties, and is thus more widely applicable to shelf seas than other more sophisticated, but less comprehensive, methods. Tests against a large data-set of observations using an Acoustic Ripple Profiler at a site on the east coast of England, where ripples are generated by both tidal currents and waves, showed that the predictor captures most of the main features observed. A modified criterion for the wave/current dominance in the prediction equations improved some aspects of the agreement. The properties of current-generated ripples are predicted accurately, but the wavelength, and to a lesser extent the height, of wave-generated ripples show some under-prediction. Ripple orientations are modelled in an approximate way, but the main features of the observed orientations are captured. The bio-degradation feature of the predictor could not be tested with this data-set.

A successful model: 30 years of the Lincolnshire Chalk model

Abstract The Lincolnshire Chalk aquifer on the east coast of England is used regionally for water supply. However, groundwater abstraction can exceed recharge during times of drought, resulting in saline intrusion. Following hydrogeological investigations in the 1970s and 1980s, a regional groundwater model was developed to underpin the tactical management of the aquifer. Although it is a coarse, single-layer, constant-density model, routine regulatory use of the model since 1988 has enabled a sustainable level of groundwater abstraction to be reached and brought saline intrusion under control. Abstraction rates have been proactively adjusted to suit prevailing conditions using model forecasts. Forecasts are evaluated against model-based thresholds, set by comparing model output (e.g. aquifer–estuary flux) with observed data (e.g. groundwater salinity). The success of the model in managing groundwater resources is attributed to: field-based hydrogeological investigations informing the model design; collaboration between regulators and abstractors, which has built confidence in the model results; commitment to updating the model; and flexibility in the supply network through conjunctive use of ground and surface water. The model has also been applied for purposes not considered during development and has therefore provided value for money for the UK water industry over a 30 year period.

'Cultivating dead trees': The legacy of Paul Nash as an artist of trauma, wilderness and recovery

Taking as its starting point the planting of a number of dead trees in the National Memorial Arboretum at Alrewas, Staffordshire, this article examines the iconic, pictorial and metaphorical value of trees - living, dying and dead - in garden and arboreta settings. Arguing that the image of inert nature strikes at the very principle of seasonal recovery and annual cycles of regeneration, the article explores the representation of danger, devastation and recuperation in the work of two contemporary British painters who each have a keen understanding of the totemic monumentality of trees, both within and outside garden and arboreta settings. Drawing upon political contexts in Northern Ireland and Iraq, and on environmental challenges along the east coast of England, both painters reference the work of the British painter Paul Nash. His understanding of decay and regeneration, and the cyclic depiction of death and life through nature, provides a connective tissue that links the major themes of remembrance, iconography and design that are at the heart of the National Memorial project at Alrewas.

British grey seal (Halichoerus grypus) abundance in 2008: an assessment based on aerial counts and satellite telemetry

Abstract Lonergan, M., Duck, C. D., Thompson, D., Moss, S., and McConnell, B. 2011. British grey seal (Halichoerus grypus) abundance in 2008: an assessment based on aerial counts and satellite telemetry. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 68: 2201–2209. Recent estimates of the total size of the British grey seal population have been based on fitting age-structured models to estimates of pup production. The estimates were sensitive to whether density-dependence was considered to act on fecundity or pup survival. This study provides an alternative estimate for abundance in 2008: 91 800 animals (95% confidence interval, CI, 78 400–109 900). The estimate is consistent with the results of existing models where population density influences pup survival. It suggests that reductions in fecundity are unlikely to have been the cause of the recent slowing of the rate of growth of the population. The estimate presented is based on aerial surveys of the entire Scottish coast and the east coast of England. The surveys were carried out in August of 2007–2009 and restricted to the 2 h each side of daylight low water. Data from 107 electronic tags deployed between 1995 and 2008 were used to estimate the proportion of animals hauled out during the surveys. Overall, the animals hauled out for 31% (95% CI 15–50%) of the survey windows. No significant effects on the proportion of animals hauled out were detected from year, location, age, sex, temperature, rainfall, or the timing of low tide.

Militarised natural history: Tales of the avocet’s return to postwar Britain

Absent as a breeding bird from Britain for at least a century, avocets (Recurvirostra avosetta) began nesting on the east coast of Britain, in Suffolk, shortly after the end of the Second World War, having homed in on two spots on Britain’s coast that had been flooded for war-related reasons. The avocets’ presence was surrounded in secrecy, while a dedicated few kept up a protective watch over them. As the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) took over responsibility for the flourishing colony, they claimed the episode as a symbol of success for British protection, later making the bird their logo. Counter to the RSPB’s story of protecting a British bird, I read the narratives of events in terms of making a bird British. I show how, as postwar Britain slumped economically and spiritually and tried to rebuild itself, the birds became a vehicle for formulating national identity: of Britain as a home to which to return and belong. Exploring the themes of returning servicemen and closed territories, the paper also examines the episode in terms of the naturalisation of the military and the militarisation of nature.

Pattern and timing of retreat of the last British-Irish Ice Sheet

During the last glacial the ice sheet that subsumed most of Britain, Ireland and the North Sea attained its maximum extent by 27 ka BP and with an ice volume sufficient to raise global sea level by ca 2.5 m when it melted. We reconstruct the demise of this British-Irish Ice Sheet (BIIS) and present palaeo-glaciological maps of retreat stages between 27 and 15 ka BP. The whole land area was investigated using remote sensing data and we present maps of moraines, meltwater channels, eskers, and drumlins and a methodology of how to interpret and bring them together. For the continental shelf, numerous large moraines were discovered recording an extensive pattern of retreat stretching from SW Ireland to the Shetland Isles. From an integration of this new mapping of glacial geomorphology (>26,000 landforms) with previously published evidence, compiled in the BRITICE database, we derive a pattern of retreat for the whole BIIS. We review and compile relevant dates (881 examples) that constrain the timing of retreat. All data are held within a Geographic Information System (GIS), and are deciphered to produce a best-estimate of the combined pattern and timing of retreat.Pattern information reveals an ice sheet mainly comprised of a shelf-parallel configuration from SW Ireland to NE Scotland but it spread far enough to the south to incorporate outlying ice domes over Wales, the Lake District and Kerry. Final disintegration was into a number of separate ice caps, rather than reduction as a single mass, and paradoxically, retreat was not always back to high ground. By 23 ka BP ice withdrew along its northern boundaries at the same time as the southern margins were expanding, including transient ice streaming down the Irish Sea and advances of lobes in the Cheshire Basin, Vale of York and east coast of England. Ice divides migrated south. By 19 ka the ice sheet was in crisis with widespread marine-based ice losses, particularly in the northern North Sea and the Irish Sea. Considerable dynamic-thinning occurred during this phase. Final collapse of all marine sectors occurred by 17 ka BP and with most margins beginning to back-step onshore. Disintegration of the North Sea ‘ice bridge’ between Britain and Norway remains loosely constrained in time but the possibility of catastrophic collapse of this sector is highlighted. The North Channel and Irish Sea ice streams had finally cleaved the ice sheet into separate Irish and Scottish ice sheets by 16 ka BP. Rates of ice loss were found to vary widely over space and time (e.g., 65–260 km3 per year). The role of ice streams and calving losses of marine-based sectors are examined. Retreat rates of up to ca 150 ma−1 were found for some ice stream margins.That large parts (2/3) of the BIIS were marine-based, drained by ice streams, and possibly with fringing ice shelves in places, makes it a useful analogue for the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS). This is especially so because the BIIS deglaciated in response to rising temperatures and a rising sea level (driven by melting of other ice masses) which are the current forcings that might cause collapse of the WAIS. Our reconstruction, when viewed from the opposite perspective, documents when fresh land became exposed for exploitation by plants, animals and Man, and records for how long such land has been available for soil and geochemical development and ecological succession.

Compaction of Holocene strata and the implications for relative sealevel change on the east coast of England

The contribution of compaction of Holocene strata to sea-level rise, shoreline erosion, and wetland loss is difficult to decipher because of a lack of long-term empirical data. We analyzed more than 360 radiocarbon-dated index points to constrain relative sea levels along the east coast of England during the Holocene and to provide estimates of sediment compaction. The isostatic effect of glacial rebound explains regional-scale differences in relative sea levels. Northeast England, the most northern study area, reveals a middle to late Holocene highstand, <1 m above present, ca. 3–4 kyr B.P., whereas the Tees Estuary, Humber Estuary, Lincolnshire Marshes, Fenlands, and North Norfolk each reveal sea-level histories of an upward trend during the Holocene. Within each area, sediment compaction explains the variation in elevation between sealevel reconstructions derived from index points taken from basal peat and those from peat intercalated within thick sequences of Holocene sediments. We find average compaction rates of 0.4 ± 0.3 mm yr−1 with higher values for the large estuaries. Rates of late Holocene relative sea-level changes, calculated from basal peats, range from −0.2 ± 0.1 mm yr−1 (i.e., sea-level fall) in northeast England to 0.8 ± 0.1 mm yr−1 in North Norfolk. Inclusion of intercalated index points overestimates late Holocene rates by 0.1–0.4 mm yr−1 because of the effects of sediment compaction.

HIGH‐DIMENSIONAL PARAMETRIC MODELLING OF MULTIVARIATE EXTREME EVENTS

SummaryMultivariate extreme events are typically modelled using multivariate extreme value distributions. Unfortunately, there exists no finite parametrization for the class of multivariate extreme value distributions. One common approach is to model extreme events using some flexible parametric subclass. This approach has been limited to only two or three dimensions, primarily because suitably flexible high‐dimensional parametric models have prohibitively complex density functions. We present an approach that allows a number of popular flexible models to be used in arbitrarily high dimensions. The approach easily handles missing and censored data, and can be employed when modelling componentwise maxima and multivariate threshold exceedances. The approach is based on a representation using conditionally independent marginal components, conditioning on positive stable random variables. We use Bayesian inference, where the conditioning variables are treated as auxiliary variables within Markov chain Monte Carlo simulations. We demonstrate these methods with an application to sea‐levels, using data collected at 10 sites on the east coast of England.

Fuzzy Bayesian Modeling of Sea-Level Along the East Coast of Britain

A fuzzy Bayesian algorithm is introduced, allowing for the incorporation of both uncertainty and fuzziness into data derived models. This is applied to predicting the sea-level near the Thames Estuary at Sheerness, from tidal gauge measurements down the east coast, astronomical tidal prediction, and meteorological data. We show that this approach can result in accurate, low-dimensional models with low computational costs and relatively fast execution times.

A robust surface matching technique for coastal geohazard assessment and management

Coastal change is a major issue in many regions of the world, and is often driven by geohazard processes such as landslides and rockfalls. Effective assessment of such phenomena is essential for successful management of coastal ecosystems, and is often reliant on GIS-based analysis. However, while it is crucial that multi-temporal datasets can be accurately registered to a common reference system, traditionally, the dynamic nature of the coastal environment has hampered this process. This paper presents a robust surface matching technique which overcomes the requirement for physical control points, and instead derives control directly from the DEM surfaces. Although surface matching procedures are well established, performance can be sub-optimal where the surfaces contain regions of difference, such as those associated with geohazard activity or vegetation effects. The crucial aspect of the least squares matching approach developed here, is the incorporation of a robust estimation function which allows the effects of surface discrepancies to be mitigated through outlier handling. Aerial photogrammetry is an established technique for coastal monitoring, and extensive archival collections exist. However, archival datasets are particularly affected by the difficulties associated with acquisition of ground control. Conversely, the maturing technique of airborne laser scanning is less influenced by such problems, and instead is capable of producing a high quality representation of coastal terrain. This paper describes the application of the robust surface matching technique to test sites located on the east coast of England. Photogrammetric DEMs are approximately oriented, before being matched to control surfaces derived from higher order datasets, including airborne laser scanning DEMs. The robust matching algorithm is shown to produce significantly improved results over ordinary surface matching. Analysis indicates the effectiveness of this technique for exploitation of archival datasets, revealing a signature of extensive geohazard activity over the twenty-five year study period. Robust matching of airborne laser scanning datasets has also enabled the quantification of short-term geohazard activity, demonstrating the flexibility of this strategy.

INDIVIDUAL‐BASED MODELS AND THE MANAGEMENT OF SHOREBIRD POPULATIONS

Abstract Individual‐based models (IBMs) predict how animal populations will be affected by changes in their environment by modeling the responses of fitness‐maximizing individuals to environmental change and by calculating how their aggregate responses change the average fitness of individuals and thus the demographic rates, and therefore size of the population. This paper describes how the need to develop a new approach to make such predictions was identified in the mid‐1970s following work done to predict the effect of building a freshwater reservoir on part of the intertidal feeding areas of the shorebirds Charadrii that overwinter on the Wash, a large embayment on the east coast of England. The paper describes how the approach was developed and tested over 20 years (1976–1995) on a population of European oystercatchers Haematopus ostralegus eating mussels Mytilus edulis on the Exe estuary in Devon, England.The paper goes on to describe how individual‐based modeling has been applied over the last 10 years to a wide range of environmental issues and to many species of shorebirds and wildfowl in a number of European countries. Although it took 20 years to develop the approach for 1 bird species on 1 estuary, ways have been found by which it can now be applied quite rapidly to a wide range of species, at spatial scales ranging from 1 estuary to the whole continent of Europe. This can now be done within the time period typically allotted to environmental impact assessments involving coastal bird populations in Europe.The models are being used routinely to predict the impact on the fitness of coastal shorebirds and wildfowl of habitat loss from (i) development, such as building a port over intertidal flats; (ii) disturbance from people, raptors, and aircraft; (iii) harvesting shellfish; and (iv) climate change and any associated rise in sea level. The model has also been used to evaluate the probable effectiveness of mitigation measures aimed at ameliorating the impact of such environmental changes on the birds. The first steps are now being taken to extend the approach to diving sea ducks and farmland birds during the nonbreeding season.The models have been successful in predicting the observed behavior and mortality rates in winter of shorebirds on a number of European estuaries, and some of the most important of these tests are described. These successful tests of model predictions raise confidence that the model can be used to advise policy makers concerned with the management of the coast and its important bird populations.

The Listening Mirrors

Between the World Wars use of a concave profiled concrete surface (a sound mirror) to reflect sound waves was thought to be the answer to the early detection of aerial attack. Ultimately, this technology was superseded by radar and the experimental work on sound reflection and collection was abandoned. As a result, the south and east coast of England is scattered with the remains of such forgotten concrete structures. The only extant collection of these structures is at Greatstone in Kent, where three sound mirrors remain and have been listed as scheduled monuments. One of the largest projects funded by the Aggregate Levy Sustainability Fund and managed by English Heritage was concerned with stabilizing these structures and undertaking research into their repair.This paper aims to outline the conservation approach to the project and to detail the concrete repair techniques trialled. It also highlights some pointers for the repair of twentieth-century concrete based on the advice of a master mason and a concrete repair contractor. Finally, the long-term monitoring that is in place for the carbonation inhibitors and cathodic protection systems that are installed on these structures are detailed.

The Clandon Barrow Finery: a Synopsis of Success in an Early Bronze Age World

The famous assemblage of finery excavated by Edward Cunnington from Clandon Barrow, Dorset, in 1882 is usually held to be archetypal of the ‘Wessex culture’ and rich graves. Meticulous examination of the six artefacts and re-appraisal of comparative material casts a new light on the significance of the group. It does not represent a definable cultural package and instead points to a complex set of inter-relationships with ‘foreign’ lands achieved, above all, by plying varied maritime networks. Connections are shown to have run up the east coast of Britain, west towards the Irish Sea, and across the Channel to both Armorica and the Frisian coast. By contrast, links with inland Wessex were rather insubstantial. Questions are raised about the utility of the ‘Wessex’ label.Although uncertain whether it was a grave group or some other ritual deposit, the assemblage can be seen in a positive light as a record of great exploits in distant travel. The material assembled came to stand for the success of the south Dorset community and its key personages as judged against the prime concerns of Early Bronze Age society. Its paramount importance is emphasised by the choice of site – a focally positioned, yet relatively isolated barrow within a dense monumental landscape and, moreover, a barrow that saw recurrent rejuvenation as part of a cycle of remembrance.

Quaternary River Diversions in the London Basin and the Eastern English Channel

The principal river of the London basin, the Thames, has experienced a number of course changes during the Quaternary. Some, at least, of these are known to result directly from glaciation. In the early Quaternary the river flowed to the north of London across East Anglia to the north coast of Norfolk. By the early Middle Pleistocene it had changed its course to flow eastwards near the Suffolk - Essex border into the southern North Sea. The Thames valley to the north of London was blocked by ice during the Anglian/Elsterian glaciation, causing a series of glacial lakes to form. Overflow of these lakes brought the river into its modern valley through London. It is thought that this valley already existed by the Anglian in the form of a tributary of the north-flowing River Medway, which joined the old Thames valley near Clacton. Also during the Anglian/Elsterian glaciation. British and continental ice masses are thought to have joined in the northern part of the North Sea basin, causing a large lake to form between the east coast of England and the Netherlands. It is widely believed that the overflow from this lake caused the first breach in the Weald-Artois Ridge, bringing about the formation of the Strait of Dover. Prior to the glaciation the Thames, in common with rivers from the continent (including the Rhine and Meuse), flowed into the North Sea Basin. It seems that, after the lake overflow, these rivers together drained southwards into the English Channel. Whether this southern drainage route was adopted during all later periods of low sea level remains to be determined, but it seems certain that this was the case during the last glacial.

Ormen Lange Langeled Development

This article, written by Assistant Technology Editor Karen Bybee, contains highlights of paper OTC 18961, "The Ormen Lange Langeled Development," by Tom Rotjer, Hydro, prepared for the 2007 Offshore Technology Conference, Houston, 30 April-3 May. The full-length paper provides a summary of the challenges of executing the Ormen Lange Langeled project. The three main features of the project-execution phase are the Ormen Lange offshore development, the Ormen Lange onshore development, and the Langeled gas-export system including the gas-receiving facility in the UK. Introduction The Ormen Lange gas field was discovered by Hydro in 1997. The development of the field, 120 km off the midwest coast of Norway, is the largest industrial project in Norway. As of January 2007, the Ormen Lange Langeled project is more than 90% complete, within budget, and on schedule for gas export by October 2007. When Ormen Lange comes on stream in October 2007, the project will contribute to the increase of Norwegian gas export by 25%. The peak annual gas production from the field of 22×109 std m3 is equivalent to the total annual energy consumption in Norway. Gas from Ormen Lange will be able to meet as much as 20% of the UK gas demand. Production life is estimated to be 30 to 40 years. Ormen Lange's gas-export pipeline, Langeled, from Nyhamna in Norway to Easington on the east coast of England, is the world's longest subsea pipeline, with 42- and 44-in.-diameter pipes and a total length of 1200 km. The Ormen Lange field will contribute significantly to Norway becoming the second largest exporter of natural gas in the world. Project Management The Ormen Lange Langeled field-development project is organized with a multicompany integrated project team headed by Hydro. Shell is responsible for subsurface and drilling of production wells and for preparing for operations. Statoil is responsible for the execution of the Langeled project. Because of the shear size and complexity of the project, it was organized into the following three major subprojects with different focuses and challenges.The Ormen Lange offshore project consists of subsea installations approximately 120 km offshore, with templates, manifolds, and pipelines.The Ormen Lange onshore project consists of the gas-processing facilities at Nyhamna.The Langeled project consists of the 1200-km gas-export transportation system, the tie-in to the Sleipner field, and the Easington gas-reception terminal in the UK. Hydro organized a common project for the execution of the field development and the transportation system to secure the integrity of the Ormen Lange Langeled project from reservoir to market. The Langeled-project organization has been staffed with personnel from both Statoil and Hydro.