The Marine Data Exchange Heritage Accelerator (MDEHA)

The MDEHA project is a two-year marine data project led by Historic England. It forms part of the Offshore Wind Evidence and Change (OWEC) programme, led by The Crown Estate in partnership with the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) and Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA).

As a Decade Action MDEHA is specifically contributing towards three of the ten UN Ocean Decade Challenges: Challenge 4, Challenge 9 and Challenge 10.

MDEHA is gathering intermediate data products (interpreted rather than raw data) from heritage professionals, derived from all forms of marine development within English waters from the last 20+ years, and depositing that data in The Crown Estate’s Marine Data Exchange and Historic England’s Marine Historic Environment Record. This data will increase and enhance the evidence base upon which project-specific and strategic decision-making is based, enabling better and faster decision-making by regulators and developers in planning offshore development, including wind farms. Ultimately, MDEHA will help to facilitate cleaner energy, as well as share knowledge about marine heritage.

Image credit: Sidescan sonar and multibeam bathymetry images of unidentified wrecks. Images courtesy of Haskoning and MSDS Marine. Made available by the MDEHA project and licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.