New technologies promise to transform the economic, scientific and environmental aspects of “ocean space” by humanity. This is the view expressed in the recent Global Marine Technology Trends 2030 report, drawn up by three British institutions – marine classification and business and technology services group Lloyd’s Register, high-technology research and development company Qinetiq and the University of Southampton.

“A greater understanding and appreciation of the oceans is essential for the well being of the world’s population,” states the report. “The oceans are vast and largely inaccessible. Our awareness and understanding of them are correspondingly small. This is especially remarkable when we consider that the oceans critically influence our climate; the oceans are the sources of considerable food, energy and mineral resources; and the seas are the highways of global trade.”

Ocean space effectively refers to the volume of the earth’s surface occupied by its seas and oceans. The report points out that salt water covers about 70% of the planet’s surface. Fish provide some 16% of humanity’s total protein intake. More than 33% of the world’s oil and gas comes from offshore operations. Wave, tidal and offshore wind energy facilities could all serve as sources of energy as well. No fewer than half of the world’s population live in coastal areas. Yet, fewer than 5% of the planet’s oceans have been explored.

“Given the depletion of land-based resources, people will increasingly look to the ocean for food, materials, energy and medicines,” affirms the report. “In fact, the potential of the ocean to provide these resources is already being realised. It will become necessary to deploy advanced and sustainable technologies to harvest these ocean resources.” It predicts that, by 2030, the number of offshore oil and gas structures will have doubled, 50% of all oil will be produced offshore and 100 times more offshore wind turbines will be in operation than today.

The report identifies eight technologies in particular that could, singly or collectively, transform human activities in the ocean space. They are advanced materials, autonomous systems, big data analytics, carbon capture and storage, deep ocean mining, marine biotechnology, sensors and communications, and sustainable energy generation.

“These technologies will provide a deep understanding of the ocean space which may be used to help address the effects of climate change, the reduction of land-based resources and the increasing population,” it says. “Through the use of these technologies, we can better protect people living in coastal areas from extreme natural forces such as hurricanes and tsunamis. They can also be used to protect the ocean environment from excess exploitation and misuse as we gain a deeper understanding of the impact of human activity on the geology, meteorology and ecology of the ocean space.”

Advanced materials will, for example, be of great benefit in the design and construction of offshore structures. Not only will these be extremely strong, but it will also be possible to embed sensors within them, making them “smart materials” and they may even be self-repairing. Autonomous systems cover unmanned air vehicles, unmanned surface vessels and unmanned underwater vessels. All will be capable of carrying sensors and communications systems and serve, for example, in monitoring and exploration missions.

Big data analytics will be necessary to handle the considerable amount of data that will be generated by human operations in the ocean space. Big data will allow the description of global ocean mechanisms. With carbon capture and storage, the carbon could be captured on land and piped to offshore structures which would pump it into suitable geological structures under the seabed.

Deep ocean mining will use advanced technologies to identify and recover minerals lying on or below the seabed. Marine biotechnology will focus on nurturing and harvesting the biological resources in the ocean by means of offshore algae facilities. The algae could be used for the production of biofuels, cosmetics, fertilisers, food and pharmaceuticals, using renewable- energy sources such as waves, wind and the sun.

Sensors and communications systems will be essential to enable all ocean space activities and tie them all together. Sensors could be mounted on spacecraft, aircraft, surface vessels and submarines, as well as on land, moored in the sea or on the seabed. Sustainable energy generation could include offshore wind, solar, wave power generation facilities and even plants to produce hydrogen from water (‘water splitting’).