2006 Strategic Environmental Assessment SEA7 Technical Report - Archaeology (NE Atlantic west of Scotland)
This report on archaeology is a contribution to the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA7) conducted by the Department of Trade and Industry (now Department of Energy and Climate Change). There is a high likelihood of surviving prehistoric archaeology (10,000 - 5000 years old) in certain areas of SEA7, most notably to the west of the Outer Hebrides for a distance of some 10km, to a depth of -20m, and in and among the islands elsewhere (particularly around Islay, Jura, Mull and the Small Isles) along the coast and between S Scotland and N Ireland. The reasons comprise a complex interplay of changing sea level and the rebound of the land once freed from the compression of ice at the end of the last Ice Age. The net result of these physical effects is that 10,000 years ago relative sea level has been up to 45m lower along much of the coast and this corresponds with the period of early human settlement in the area. In places this means that considerable areas of submerged land exist. An investigation of bathymetric, sedimentary and tidal data for the area suggests that the prehistoric land surface, including archaeological remains, may survive in many places. Cooperation between existing extraction companies and renewable industries and archaeologists elsewhere in Britain shows how the recording and investigation of archaeological material could be beneficial to both parties should work take place in SEA7. The final sections provide a preliminary examination of how matters might be taken forward to safeguard the archaeological knowledgebase without prejudicing commercial interests.
dataset
http://www.bgs.ac.uk/data/sea/home.html
name: Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) data portal
description: The Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) data portal provides free access to available data and reports which have been produced through the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change SEA process. The site is run and managed by BGS on behalf of the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC). Many files can be downloaded directly from this website. Those that are too large to download can be ordered via the website for postal delivery from BGS.
function: download
BGS_SEA_111
British Geological Survey
eng
OGP
urn:ogc:def:crs:EPSG::4326
http://www.offshore-sea.org.uk/site/index.php
environment
oceans
society
revision
2011-03-25
Geology
Production and industrial facilities
publication
2008-06-01
publication
2008-06-01
-24
-5
60.2
55.2
revision
2006-01-01
2006-01-01
2006-01-01
publication
2006-03-01
notPlanned
This report was prepared by C R Wickham-Jones and S Dawson (School of Geography and Geosciences, University of St Andrews) as part of the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change's Offshore Energy Strategic Environmental Assessment programme. Various sources were used in the compilation of the report.
The SEAs data were produced as part of the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change's Offshore Energy Strategic Environmental Assessment programme; Crown Copyright, all rights reserved. The DECC SEA must be acknowledged in any maps or publications that make use of the data. All the data files are freely available to the public. The Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) data portal provides free access to available data and reports which have been produced through the SEA process. The site is run and managed by BGS on behalf of the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC). Many files can be downloaded directly from this website. Those that are too large to download can be ordered via the website for postal delivery from BGS. BGS (NERC) has been contracted by DECC to publish SEA datasets on its behalf. All intellectual property rights (including , without limitation, copyrights, database rights and all other rights which subsist or may at any time in the future subsist in the Dataset(s)) in the Dataset(s) ('Intellectual Property Rights') are owned by DECC (formerly the Department of Trade and Industry, and the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform). BGS has been authorised by DECC to use SEA datasets for all purposes but on a 'not-for-profit basis'. BGS has been authorised by DECC to pass on SEA datasets to third parties so that they can use them for all purposes but on a 'not-for-profit' basis.
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British Geological Survey (BGS)
+44 (0)131 667 1000
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pointOfContact
2011-08-30