Operational scour forecasting for safe jack-up operations

Scour is an imminent threat for jack-up operations in shallow waters with sandy seabed conditions, strong tidal currents and/or a harsh wave climate, such as the North Sea. In order to assist jack-up operators with their management of scour, an operational scour forecast and hindcast system was developed by Deltares. This system (OSCAR operational, an extension of OSCAR the scour manager) automatically imports and processes metocean forecast data (water levels, waves and currents) from operational metocean models and calculates a forecast for the scour development for a similar time span, usually about 3 to 5 days in advance.