Planning the installation of the European Multidisciplinary Sea-floor Observatory (EMSO): First approach using geographic information systems (GIS)

The design, installation and maintenance of any submarine cable are difficult tasks necessary done for long-term submarine observatories. Cable installation and maintenance is one of the most expensive parts of a submarine cable system. To reduce costs, computer-based approaches are used for planning the installation and the maintenance of these networks. This contribution wants to briefly describe some basis to take into account in the framework of the European Multidisciplinary Sea-floor Observatory (EMSO). Quality improvements can reduce costs in cable installations. Submarine cable installation quantity is dramatically increasing, and these new tools minimize human error and reduce the added time at sea due to errors, reducing costs at the same time.