Trans-UK Gas Pipeline Corridor Feasibility - Coursework Example

TRANS-UK GAS PIPELINE CORRIDOR FEASIBILITY STUDY INTRODUCTION Objectives The objective of the present report is providing a desk study and field survey report to assist Network Gas in their corridor selection across the Cotswolds. The Cotswolds slope is a paramount territory for biodiversity because of its semi-characteristic character. However the effect of environmental change is now being watched on its species and natural surroundings. The making of an 80 mile north-south corridor between Bath and Mickleton, in light of the scarp, is constantly proposed as a viable answer for help natural life adjusts to environmental change, through the improvement of territory connectivity and fitting land administration. The project was talked about at a later gathering of invested individuals embodying neighborhood powers and protection and land administration organizations coating Avon and Gloucestershire. During the gathering there was unanimous regard for the thought of a corridor and an association project to convey it. Further work is presently being embraced with accomplices to create the project further (The newsletter from the Cotswolds Conservation Board, 2010). The corridor selection activity must keep into consideration the factors like Terrain evaluation and geo hazards including faults, landslides, and zones of seismic activity, karstic areas, cambering, and presence of underground voids, springs and rivers (The newsletter from the Cotswolds Conservation Board, 2010). Site information The Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, in any case, is likewise the hub for biodiversity and nature preservation - a broadly essential range which incorporates characteristics, for example, extraordinary limestone grasslands, aged beech woodlands, a system of unblemished, limestone streams, and an plenitude of vegetation. Biodiversity assumes a significant part in all our lives. It gives us sustenance, fuel and solution, garments, building materials and safe house, entertainment and tourism, surge administration and substantially more. That is the reason, in festival of the 2010 International Year of Biodiversity, an assembly of occasions will be held over the Cotswolds showcasing what the territory need to offer as far as its mixture of plant and creature life, and what we can do to ensure it. “The 2010 International Year of Biodiversity is an opportunity to celebrate the wildlife of the Cotswolds and campaign to protect it for future generations, “as stated by Mark Connelly, Land Management Officer at the Cotswolds Conservation Board (CCB) (The Cotswold Lion, 2010). During April, there would be the Cotswolds Bluebell Weekend, where guests and inhabitants can ascertain more about Britain's preferred bloom. During June the Cotswolds Wildflowers Week presents an array of occasions admiring the ample blossom of wildflowers - great portions of which can be found in the Cotswolds' limestone grassland and during September, the Cotswolds Rivers Week would happen. Cotswolds Rivers are habitat to a swarm of wildlife, counting the otter, water vole, native brown trout and the native-white clawed crayfish. The Marketing Manager at Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust, Emma Bradshaw states “We are delighted to be hosting events during the Cotswolds Bluebell Weekend and Wildflower Week to celebrate the International Year of Biodiversity”. “To encourage people to experience wildlife through attending events helps to raise awareness of the wonderful diversity of wildlife and wild places in the Cotswolds.” “The Cotswolds is a remarkably rich and varied landscape and deservedly designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty”, says Conservation and Land Management Adviser for the Gloucestershire Team at Natural England, Paul Hackman, which is an independent public organization that focuses on England’s natural atmosphere. He continues: “It is perhaps the scarp where the greatest concentration of biodiversity can be found, with its mosaic of orchid-rich limestone grasslands and distinctive beech woodlands; some of which are of European importance”. However, the flat terrain has also turned out to be progressively more significant as a refuge for countrywide declining and rising rare arable wildflowers and farmland birds. The Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) Management Plan 2013-18 has two nearly interrelated capacities. Firstly, it sets out the Cotswolds Conservation Board's ("the Board") strategies for the administration of the Cotswolds AONB and for the completing of its capacities in connection to it. The activities of the Board itself will take to convey the Plan's targets are situated out in the Board's three year moving strategy for success. Also, it controls the engagement of open forms, landowners, organizations and people in the administration of the AONB. The activities the Board might urge others to take separately or in association with others, incorporating the Board are situated out in the engagement plan. This statutory arrangement has critical weight in affecting the extensive variety of future choices that will influence the AONB. It will work close by other statutory plans and program and an extensive variety of other national and neighborhood activities. The Board will look for formal distinguishing of the Plan as a "material thought" in Core Strategies/local Plans and Neighborhood Plans. The Management Plan is organized along a straightforward 'Golden Thread' that expands the Vision, taking into account its statutory reason and landed at by discussion (Cotswold Conservation Board, 2012). National Grid charged 3g Communications to deal with the group issues around the development of a 44km, high-weight gas pipeline in Gloucestershire. Designers cut a swathe the width of a double carriageway through the beautiful, incredibly famous Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), influencing memorable drystone walls and significant pathways esteemed by locals and walkers worldwide. The Cotswolds Conservation Board (CCB), which attempts to protect and upgrade the AONB, at first, contradicted the undertaking through a media battle and it was fundamental to manufacture a positive relationship to dodge delays. The pipeline was required to take care of climbing demand for gas in South West England 3g needed to make a neighborhood relations procedure which captivated the CCB, the neighborhood MP, who had at first questioned the pipeline, and the nearby group to furnish clear correspondence, understanding and acknowledgement. Builders needed to take after a strict code of neighborhood behavior, for example, safe driving on the area paths. Senior project manager, Ian Sarson stated, “We are committed to effectively managing and monitoring our works, with our ultimate aim being to restore all of the land to its original pre-construction condition and ensure effects to the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, including the drystone walls, are kept to a minimum” (The Cotswold Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, n.d.). There are various exercises in the Cotswolds to keep you occupied; the accepted Cotswold exercises of strolling and cycling are as famous as ever, with numerous guests to the Cotswolds wanting the various strolling and cycling trails encompassed by amazing farmland. The Cotswolds are arranged in a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty with thousands of miles of trails and bridleways, a walker's heaven. Stroll through moving field spotted with pleasant towns loaded with history and accompany winding stream valleys with some extraordinary perspectives. Exercises, for example, cricket and rugby might be taken part in, or delighted in an all the more restful style - spectating with companions. Kingsholm is the home stadium of Gloucester Rugby with a limit of 16,000 individuals - once home to England's national group before they settled at Twickenham. Steed hustling is a paramount diversion in the Cotswolds. The world famous Cheltenham Festival happens on the doorstep of the Cotswolds, with an electric air dazzling the entire town directly as the week progressed (The CotsWolds, n.d.). Information Sources Most of the information has been collected from the official website of National Grid Project at Cotswold. Moreover most of the site information has been gathered from the Cotswold home page. 2. DESK STUDY 2.1 Applied geology The Cotswold Hills stretch for almost 60 miles, a piece of an outcrop of Jurassic shakes that runs NE from the Dorset coast to the North Sea off Yorkshire. The shakes that structure the Cotswold Hills are made up of three distinctive geographical phases of the Jurassic period and date from between 210-140 million years prior. The soak western scarp of the Cotswolds uncovered segments through Lower and Middle Jurassic shakes that dip delicately eastwards towards Oxford and London. At Leckhampton Hill and Cleeve Common, the thickest and most complete areas of Inferior Oolite shakes anyplace in the nation are uncovered, recognised by their designation as Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Further to the south-east exposures of the Great Oolite might be found in various quarries and cuttings. The Lower Jurassic rocks are made up of the Lias Group and the Middle Jurassic rocks comprise of the Inferior Oolite Group and Great Oolite Group. Each of these groups is divided into different more modest divisions called Formations, and in the Middle Jurassic rocks, these arrangements are frequently sub-isolated into Members. The diverse groups, establishments and members are recognized from one another as per contrasts in the sorts of rock, the sorts of fossils found in the rocks and by disintegration surfaces that stamps soften up statement of the sediments. The shakes that from the Cotswold Escarpment are practically only marine, and were structured for the most part in warm tropical oceans, much like those around Bermuda today. Plate tectonics has transported this some piece of the Earth's outside layer northward throughout the last 150-200 million years until we arrived at our present position. There are two fundamental sorts of sediment found in the rocks of the Cotswolds; the clastics and the carbonates. Clastics comprise of particles of material disintegrated from rocks ashore and transported by streams wind and structure the muds, muds and sands and can have a quite wide dispersion over the ocean depths. The carbonates are for the most part generated by precipitation of calcium carbonate and by aggregation chemicals from dead creatures, what we know as fossils, and structure the limestones. These have a much narrower zone in which they structure being limited to shallow waters in a warm atmosphere. The progressions in the sorts of sediment provide for us an abundance of data as to nature's domain in which these sediments were saved and close examination can furnish a quite clear picture of what the topography of the zone was like around then. At the base of the Jurassic and making up the more level slants of the Cotswold Escarpment are the muds, sediments and sands of the Lias Group. These were stored on the floor of truly a profound sea, yet a sea that at times shallowed to permit the shaping of a few limestones, for example, the Marlstone Rock Bed. At the highest point of the Lias Group there is a change in sediment sort as detached sand supplants the muds and residues; truth be told, in the south of the district there is more sand than mud in its upper part. The Middle Jurassic rocks are the trademark 'Cotswold Limestones'. The Inferior Oolite Group comprises of the rocks seen in the various exposures along the western confronting scarp of the Cotswolds. Delicate, yellow, sandy limestones of the at the base of the Inferior Oolite offer approach to additional robust shakes as the arrangement moves upwards and the thick cots of fine grained oolitic limestones of the Birdlip Limestone Formation were broadly utilized as an excellent building stone. Towards the highest point of the Inferior Oolite the limestones get to be more fossiliferous and are generally alluded to as "grits" because of their coarser composition. Lying above the Inferior Oolite Group is the Great Oolite Group. This comprises of a greatly shifted grouping of shakes that can change breathtakingly both through the arrangement and geologically over the zone. Significant arrangements inside the Great Oolite incorporate the Fuller's Earth, a thick bunk of earth that holds a mineral which was utilized to evacuate oil from fleeces and helped significantly to the achievement of the Cotswold wool exchange the Middle Ages. Different creations vital to the zones economy today are the White Limestone, quarried as a total, the Chipping Norton Limestone, quarried as a total and a building stone, and the Eyford Member, used to prepare universal Cotswold material 'slates'. The Quaternary stores of the Cotswolds contain shifted unconsolidated couches, alluded to by and large as "Drift". These incorporate icy, fluvial and a blended group of periglacial stores regarded as "Head". These are scattered broadly over the region however their heaviest fixations happen in the Vale of Moreton and in the zone around Cirencester, where they are widely worked for their rock (Gloucestershire Geology Trust, 2014). The Great and Inferior Oolite limestones structure critical aquifers in the Cotswolds. The groundwater dreamy is utilized for the most part for open supply, with little yet significant divisions serving agrarian and private requirements. The territory secured in this study stretches out from Broadway in the north towards Cricklade in the South incorporating the Cotswold Hills. The report portrays the provincial varieties in the benchmark hydrochemistry of groundwaters and the overwhelming geochemical techniques occurring in the limestone aquifers. The limestones harvest out in the north-west of the study range, however dip tenderly south-eastwards where they are secured continuously by more youthful stores, bringing about aquifer control. Various spring lines are available in the region, the lion's share happening along the northern limestone escarpment.The most significant element influencing the synthetic creation of the limestone groundwaters in the district is carbonate response. Shut the revive zone, waters are oxidising and emphatically ph-cradled with Ca and Hco3 as the prevailing broke down particles. Unique hydrochemical progressions are watched down gradient as the aquifer gets to be dynamically more bound. Particle trade methods get to be huge and a change to a Na-Hco3 water happens. Redox-delicate components record the onset of diminishing conditions. Further along the flowline, profound inside the bound limestone, blending with old creation waters impacts the water science, bringing about a Na-Cl sort groundwater. Unique stable-isotopic sytheses prescribe long habitation times in the request of some many years of age for these waters.The lion's share of unconfined groundwaters, and specifically, spring waters in the district are influenced by horticultural contamination, indicating high nitrate focuses. In restricted groundwaters, where disintegrated oxygen is decreased or missing, nitrate focuses are more level showing that denitrification is liable to have happened. Some of these waters may even be of sufficient age to speak to premodern water. It is inferred that the hydrochemical lands of the groundwaters in the Great and Inferior Oolite limestone are predominantly dictated by characteristic responses between the energized water and the limestone rock. Regular benchmark focuses for a few components can go over some requests of extent. 2.3 Historical Land Use The region is historically significant for geological discipline, with a lot of typical localities initially portrayed in the last century. As per some writers, interpretations of the disparity between Severn Vale and Cotswolds helped create concepts of withstanding and differing solidity of rocks shaping landform. As projected the experiences of the Jurassic era are well characterized, even though there are also a small number of significant Quaternary Period sites (commencing from the last ice age). The Cotswolds are mainly imperative for stratigraphy (rock sequences) and for palaeontology (fossil environments and fossils) (Cotwolds draft, 1997). 2.4 Aerial photographic interpretation The Cotswold Hills (South Cotswolds) National Mapping Programme (NMP) project, concluded within October 2007 and October 2010, covers an area of 950 square kilometres, or 35 full quarter sheets in the southern part of the Cotswolds. The area is located in south Gloucestershire, with some quarter sheets overlapping into Oxfordshire and Wiltshire. Broadly speaking, the project area runs from Cheltenham to Chipping Norton, south to Carterton, then south west to Malmesbury and Chipping Sodbury, then north east to Cheltenham (SP 050,250 or 405000, 225000 to SP 350,250 or 435000,225000 to SP 350,100 or 435000,210000 to ST 800,900 or 380000,190000 to SP 050,250 or 405000, 225000). The Cotswold Hills area abuts previous NMP projects Upper Thames and North Cotswolds. 3. SITE RECONNAISSANCE 3.1 Overview of field survey Dates, Weather, who undertook the mapping, What field equipment and maps were used. 3.2 Geomorphologic features encountered classic sample of 'scarp and dip' landscape. probably the most intense gathering of landslips in inland Britain. dry valleys, windgaps, misfit streams and chiseled meanders. extensive cambering on the scarp and valley sides. evidence of southern most degree of current glaciations 4. CONCEPTUAL SITE MODEL 4.1 Geological ground conditions Thickest areas of Middle Jurassic Inferior Oolite rocks in the UK. Classic range of Jurassic stratigraphy. The ONLY range where units, for example, Gryphite Grit, Rolling Bank Member and the Pea Grit can be seen. Long history of studies. Provides the supplies for the trademark Cotswold building, walling stone and roofing. Provides aquifers for neighborhood water supply. Part of a structural characteristic reaching out from Somerset to Yorkshire. Numerous superior quality exposures (Gloucestershire Geology Trust, 2005) 4.2 Geomorphology Geohazards, such as volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis, landslides etc. can have upsetting effects on economies, landscapes and populations around the globe. Accepting and efficiently communicating the impacts, mitigation and risks of these hazards is indispensable for reducing the suffering of human beings (The Geological Society, n.d.). Thus the engineers should keep these hazards in mind while planning the pipeline structure. In this case, we can follow the guidelines by the National grid. The wellbeing and security of the society are top necessities for National Grid. All development works are figured out stating how to minimize the effect of the pipeline on nearby groups, the earth and agribusiness. They have entered into a traffic management plan with the nearby powers and crisis administrations to minimize the impact of development activity on nearby ways. They strengthen a safe driving message to all their staff and foremen, yet might at present ask everybody to take specific care on streets and privileges of way while development is under progress. Folks might likewise need to aware their youngsters of the dangers of playing around development locales (Newsletter, 2010). 5. RECOMMENDATIONS An ideal pipeline implementation plan should include signals for the muxes must be created, some of which can take place during ID. Additionally, the pipeline structure needs look-up tables to recognize circumstances that value bypassing/stalling, the quantity of inputs to the muxes increases. For instance in the following pipeline structure plan we can incorporate- add R1, R2, R3 lw R4, 8(R1) For the 5-stage pipeline, the bypassing process can eradicate delays between the following example pairs of instructions: add/sub R1, R2, R3 add/sub/lw/sw R4, R1, R5 lw R1, 8(R2) sw R1, 4(R3) The subsequent pairs of instructions will have transitional stalls: lw R1, 8(R2) add/sub/lw R3, R1, R4 or sw R3, 8(R1) fmul F1, F2, F3 fadd F5, F1, F4 Thus these alignments help the engineers to deal with several kinds of hazards (eng.utah.edu, n.d.). Moreover the gas pipeline network must consist of more than 7,600 kilometers of high quality welded steel pipeline operating at pressures of up to 85 bar (85 times normal atmospheric pressure, over 1250 psi). The gas is transported by the means of the system using 23 deliberately positioned compressor stations. This will allow the supply of gas to other nations via interlinked pipelines. Gas requires to be cooled by up to 40 degree centigrade to decrease the pressure so it can be moved via service networks and mains to be applied by lower pressure sites (National Grid, n.d.). National Grid’s approach can be followed that adopted a personal approach to communications, identifying key individuals and developing relationships. Their primary audience was the community and its representatives - MPs, elected councilors and parish councils - also the CCB, schools, walking, local media and horse-riding groups, individual walkers and holiday companies operating in the Cotswolds. They created a free data phone line, worked 24/7 when needed, staffed by educated colleagues who comprehended nearby concerns. They consistently hand-conveyed correspondence to more than 1,000 inhabitants to overhaul them on issues, for example, nearby street terminations, thinking on improving their relationship with those living quite near the development site. Their project specific email record empowered a quick two-path trade of data for the individuals who favored this specialized system. Content informing was utilized successfully to caution the venture group to issues, for example, mud on the road and to upgrade nearby inhabitants. An area of National Grid's site was devoted to the undertaking and we worked close by the CCB to telecast "live" data on pathway terminations by means of its Twitter administration. National Grid's neighborhood venture program was effectively pushed to give an enduring, unmistakable profit to the group. This backed 17 activities, incorporating subsidizing for strolling occasions, school activities, pathway reclamation activities and town lobby supplies. Members of the National Grid correspondences and project groups cooperated with nearby schools and organizations, providing with wellbeing talks, planning tree-planting and giving backing to assemble genuine trust with the nearby neighborhood. 6. SUMMARY 6.1 CONCLUDING REMARKS Thus from the entire report it can be illustrated that the area of Cotswold is full of natural beauty and agro business and the engineers should be much alert while planning the oil and gas pipeline structures here since any kind of leakage or hazards can cause huge destructions to the mankind, animals as well the nature surrounding the place. It can also be concluded from the study that a pipeline project must be carried on with the consent of the local people staying over there. For instance the case of National grid can be cited, which worked on a gas pipeline extending throughout the Gloucestershire border and Worcestershire and has led to £1 million value of funding for the Cotswolds. A superior operational relationship between the National Grid and the Cotswolds Conservation board was much needed for the implementation and execution of the project plan. Although the environmental implications are inevitable in such project, still the National Grid worked towards the pipeline project that came up with £400,000 of funding for the purpose of reconstruction or restoration of dry-stone walls; £100,000 of sourcing for community projects and almost £100,000 for the purpose of a range of weather change projects (Cotswold Journal, 2011). 6.2 LIMITATIONS In the initial stages a pipeline firm cans encounter group restriction, negative media scope and a need of trust as happened in National Grid because of past postponements to the undertaking. Neighborhoods used to be upset by clamor, dust, mud on ways, extra activity and substantial vehicles on restricted paths. The effect on nature's turf and visual interruption concerned numerous occupants, who were likewise cognizant of the new pipeline might not specifically profit nearby individuals as it might not convey gas to their towns. Other associated concerns incorporated terminations and redirections of ways, real pathways and bridleways throughout the occupied summer months and the effect of development on the numerous open, group and beneficent occasions went to by thousands of guests in this famous holiday spots (National Grid and 3G Communications Ltd, n.d.). References 1. The newsletter from the Cotswolds Conservation Board, (2010).Conserving and enhancing. Retrieved from http://www.cotswoldsaonb.org.uk/?page=eNewsletterView&itemid=444&template=none 2. The Cotswold Lion, (2010). The Cotswolds – a haven for biodiversity. Retrieved from http://www.uklandscapeaward.org/Entryfiles/1282573890cotswold-lion.pdf 3. Cotswold Conservation Board, (2012). COTSWOLDS AONB MANAGEMENT PLAN 2013-18. Retrieved from http://www.cotswoldsaonb.org.uk/userfiles/file/management-plan-review/second-draft-oct-12/2nd-consultation-draft-2012.pdf 4. The Cotswold Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, (n.d.). Work Begins on Wormington to Sapperton Gas Pipeline. Retrieved from http://www.cotswoldsaonb.org.uk/?page=NewsView&itemid=433 5. The CotsWolds, (n.d.) The Great Cotswold Outdoors... Retrieved from http://cotswolds.com/the-great-cotswold-outdoors 6. Gloucestershire Geology Trust, (2014). Cotswolds Geology. Retrieved from http://www.glosgeotrust.org.uk/cots_geology.shtml 7. National Grid and 3G Communications Ltd, (n.d.). Community Relations during Major Pipeline Construction. Retrieved from http://www.cipr.co.uk/sites/default/files/12119013%20ok%20to%20publish.pdf 8. Cotswold Journal, (2011). Funds in pipeline. Retrieved from http://www.cotswoldjournal.co.uk/news/local/broadway/9217308.Funds_in_pipeline/ 9. National Grid, (n.d.). How gas is produced, transmitted and distributed. Retrieved from http://www.nationalgrideducation.com/secondary/downloads/education-resources/ngrid_be-the-source_how-gas-produced.pdf 10. eng.utah.edu, (n.d.) Lecture: Pipelining Hazards. Retrieved from http://www.eng.utah.edu/~cs6810/pres/12-6810-04.pdf 11. Newsletter, (2010). Wormington to Sapperton gas pipeline project. Retrieved from http://www.cotswoldsaonb.org.uk/userfiles/file/news/newsletter%20-%20april%202010.pdf 12. The Geological Society, (n.d.). Geohazards. Retrieved from http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/geohazards 13. Gloucestershire Geology Trust, (2005). Cotswolds AONB Conservation Board. Retrieved from http://www.cotswoldsaonb.org.uk/userfiles/file/Publications/AONBImportance(1).pdf 14. Cotwolds draft, (1997). First consultation draft prepared by English Nature Three Counties Team Bronsil House. Retrieved from http://www.naturalareas.naturalengland.org.uk/Science/natural/profiles%5CnaProfile55.pdf Read More