standardization of environmental data and information - International ...

Use of geological data for environmental baseline studies
One participant wondered how the geological studies recommended
by Wiedecke-Hombach might fit in with the programme of environmental
baseline studies. Since geologists would have to collect such data before
any test mining, one approach might be to wait for the results before
designing a baseline-sampling programme.
Wiedecke-Hombach agreed that it might be valid to use the survey
results in that way. However, as geologists tended to concentrate their
sampling on certain areas and topographic types, they could miss other
types. In addition to water-depth measurements and a bathymetric map,
environmental studies needed to consider the topography of the sampling
site. Even at the same water depth, a slope, a basin or the top of a hill were
different environments. A hilltop tended to have less sedimentation
because currents removed much of the sediment. In some areas, the
Tertiary sequence was exposed at the surface, meaning that 2 million years
of sediment were missing or had never been deposited. While overall
deposition did not change on a small scale, something might occur to
remove it, producing a lot of small-scale variability that also affected
benthic communities.
He was asked whether explorers might regard such data as
proprietary and be unwilling to give away information about nodule
resources or the technology they were using. He replied that potential
investors were supposed to inform the Authority about the distribution of
manganese nodules before they could resister a claim area, half of which
was to be set aside for others’ use.
A member of the Legal and Technical Commission also expressed
the view that environmental information would not be considered
proprietary. While he did not know the thinking of contractors, proprietary
data would typically relate to the economics of the deposits, such as nodule
abundance and metal grades, keys for assessing resources and reserves.
Notes and References
1. H. Thiel (ed.) (2001), Environmental Impact Studies for the Mining of Polymetallic
Nodules from the Deep Sea, Deep-Sea Research II v. 48.
INTERNATIONAL SEABED AUTHORITY 165