Refining Areas of Maritime Archaeological Potential (AMAPs) for Shipwrecks

In May 2007, English Heritage commissioned Bournemouth University to undertake a project entitled Refining Areas of Maritime Archaeological Potential for Shipwrecks - AMAP1 funded by the Aggregate Levy Sustainability Fund (ALSF). The aim of the project is to undertake quantitative spatial analysis of shipwreck data using GIS to compare typologised wreck scatters to environmental, historical and hydrographic datasets in order to identify biases in the data and refine areas identified as AMAPs during the Navigational Hazards project.

Areas of Maritime Archaeological Potential (AMAP) are areas were it is considered that the navigational (i.e. reefs or sandbanks) or environmental conditions (i.e. tidal races or overfalls) present in the area are likely to have caused shipping loss in the past and where the seabed conditions are such that preservation of archaeological material is thought to be likely.