Pelagian's consultant engineers have played a major part in the design of a number of the world's submarine cable systems. Our feasibility studies comprise a detailed hazard assessment of the proposed cable system, researching natural and man-made terrestrial and marine hazards, meteorological, oceanographic and earth processes, seabed topography and sediments, maritime industries (fishing, offshore oil and gas, existing pipelines and cables, shipping routes, marine tourism and military activity), environmental impact on flora and fauna, cable fault histories and interaction with marine protected areas and coastal/underwater archaeology.

Each element of the feasibility study is researched in detail to provide the customer with a clear concept of the level of risk associated to the cable system and Pelagian's engineers provide innovative solutions to mitigate that risk for the typical 25 year design life of the cable.

Pelagian uses a wide range of academic and commercial datasets to build a comprehensive resource of the factors which may affect the life of a proposed submarine cable. This knowledge base is supported by Pelagian's comprehensive experience of cable installation (ploughing, jetting and trenching, shore end landings, post lay inspection and burial and deepwater surface laying) to give the customer complete confidence in the proposed cable system route and the risk factors associated with it.

Pelagian uses MakaiPlan GIS software as a cornerstone of the feasibility study process, using the GIS functionality to import various layers of data to assist with cable system planning. This includes Admiralty and NOAA maritime charts, bathymetry databases, sediment data, oceanographic data, earthquake locations, existing cable databases and satellite imagery. As each dataset is reviewed, the cable system route is continually modified until an optimum route has been determined.

Pelagian's consultant engineers are experts in assessing landing points for cable systems and have extensive experience of the world's existing cable landings. As capacity at these landings becomes critical, Pelagian's engineers assess the suitability of new cable landings from the perspective of safe and effective installation, ease of permitting, connection to the customer's infrastructure and long term cable maintenance.

Pelagian's feasibility study expertise also comprises the commercial evaluation of a proposed cable system, designing a route from first principles based on the customer's requirements (city to city or country to country) and calculating the likely capital cost of the cable system in terms of cable quantity, transmission capacity; cost of installation and maintenance, and the cost of integrating the system within new or existing infrastructure.

Pelagian's recent track record of feasibility studies includes the following cable systems:-

• Cyprus to Egypt
• Japan to USA
• France to Egypt
• UK, Portugal and Mediterranean
• Irish Sea
• Middle East