A Review of Engineering Standards for the Blue Economy – Gaps & Challenges

A key ingredient in the design of structures and systems for the Blue Economy is engineering standards (used here as a blanket term for codes, Rules, recommended practices etc.). The focus in this paper is standards applicable to offshore wind, marine renewables, and open-ocean aquaculture. Standards for oil and gas offshore structures are used as a starting point. Developing and maintaining standards for any engineering discipline is always challenging and more so for rapidly developing sectors such as those associated with the Blue Economy. This paper presents a general discussion of engineering standards and the current state of standards for the Blue Economy. This includes a selective survey of relevant standards; the current and anticipated challenges and how much progress has been made towards developing the required documents.