About This Book
This short book starts with an overview and general information and then provides
more technical details through the following chapters.
Chapter 1 “Introduction to the concepts” is aimed at readers who wish to get an
overview of the ERA methodology and concepts, and why the method was
developed. This chapter also provides a brief introductory summary of potential
areas of use, and a brief discussion of some of the uncertainties involved when
introducing a new methodology. These two latter topics are covered in more depth
in Chaps. 2 and 4, respectively, for the interested reader.
The second part, Chap. 2, “Environmental Risk Management Applications of
ERA Acute” should be read by those interested to learn more about what the ERA
Acute methodology can be used for, how it can be used for different analysis
purposes and how the endpoints can be presented.
The third part, Chap. 3, “An ERA Acute Model Overview” is relevant to those who
want to go deeper into the basic equations and the model concepts. For even more
detail and background knowledge, the reader is encouraged to consult the background
reports which are made available (see the links in the references to the chapters).
These background reports also contain original references to peer-reviewed work
describing the methodology in more detail than could be included in a short book.
The fourth part consists of two chapters which should be read by those who are
interested in the documentation of the methods used for testing and validating ERA
Acute for use as a risk assessment method as well as the uncertainty handling.
Chapter 4 “Testing and Validating against Historic Spills” describes the process and
challenges of comparing ERA Acute against two historic spills, the Deepwater
Horizon and Exxon Valdez oil spills. Uncertainty handling based on sensitivity
testing is described in Chap. 5, “Handling Uncertainty and Sensitivity of ERA
Acute towards Input Parameters”. Background reports are available for these
studies as well for the interested reader.
Tables including supplemental information and references are provided at the
end. Abbreviations used are defined the first time they are used in this book, and not
in each chapter.
ix
This short book starts with an overview and general information and then provides
more technical details through the following chapters.
Chapter 1 “Introduction to the concepts” is aimed at readers who wish to get an
overview of the ERA methodology and concepts, and why the method was
developed. This chapter also provides a brief introductory summary of potential
areas of use, and a brief discussion of some of the uncertainties involved when
introducing a new methodology. These two latter topics are covered in more depth
in Chaps. 2 and 4, respectively, for the interested reader.
The second part, Chap. 2, “Environmental Risk Management Applications of
ERA Acute” should be read by those interested to learn more about what the ERA
Acute methodology can be used for, how it can be used for different analysis
purposes and how the endpoints can be presented.
The third part, Chap. 3, “An ERA Acute Model Overview” is relevant to those who
want to go deeper into the basic equations and the model concepts. For even more
detail and background knowledge, the reader is encouraged to consult the background
reports which are made available (see the links in the references to the chapters).
These background reports also contain original references to peer-reviewed work
describing the methodology in more detail than could be included in a short book.
The fourth part consists of two chapters which should be read by those who are
interested in the documentation of the methods used for testing and validating ERA
Acute for use as a risk assessment method as well as the uncertainty handling.
Chapter 4 “Testing and Validating against Historic Spills” describes the process and
challenges of comparing ERA Acute against two historic spills, the Deepwater
Horizon and Exxon Valdez oil spills. Uncertainty handling based on sensitivity
testing is described in Chap. 5, “Handling Uncertainty and Sensitivity of ERA
Acute towards Input Parameters”. Background reports are available for these
studies as well for the interested reader.
Tables including supplemental information and references are provided at the
end. Abbreviations used are defined the first time they are used in this book, and not
in each chapter.
ix