A Marine Aggregate Regional Environmental Assessment (MAREA) is a voluntary initiative, endorsed by the British Marine Aggregates Producers Association (BMAPA), The Crown Estate and the Marine Management Organisation.

The main objectives of a MAREA are to describe the baseline environmental characteristics in an region with several marine aggregate licence/application areas and to evaluate the potential cumulative and in-combination effects of all the existing and planned future dredging operations.

As part of the consenting process, Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) are still carried out for individual licence applications. The MAREA allows the EIAs to be considered in a regional context and therefore provide for a better understanding of the interaction with the surrounding environment and other sea users.

ABPmer’s Processes Team prepared the REA Scoping Study and the subsequent hydrodynamic, sediment mobility and turbid plume elements of the Humber and Greater Wash Area MAREA.

All MAREA documents can be found in the MAREA repository.