Chapter 1
Towards Mitigation of Environmental Risks
Tarmo Soomere
Abstract This introductory chapter describes the background of a preventive technology for environmental management of remote risks associated with potentially
dangerous offshore activities. The notion of environmental risk caused by shipping
and offshore activities is introduced as the product of the probability of an accident
and the cost of its consequences. A new paradigm of remote environmental risks of
contemporary ship traffic is presented, with examples of the remote impact (such as
oil spill or wake waves) and a short outline of the challenges for ship routing based
on environmental criteria. Several pioneering solutions towards decreasing both the
local and the remote impact of ship traffic are discussed. The concept of the quantification of offshore and remote areas in terms of their potential as starting points of
pollution that after some time hits vulnerable areas is introduced, and related challenges are discussed. While the impact of wind and waves on pollution transport is
relatively well understood, the largest challenge is to take into account the presence
of semi-persistent patterns of currents and quantify their role in pollution propagation. An approximate solution to this inverse problem of pollution propagation
can be obtained using statistical analysis of a large pool of trajectories of selected
particles. There exist several meaningful ways of such a quantification of offshore
domains, for example, in terms of the probability of hitting vulnerable areas or of
the time it takes for the pollution to reach such areas. An engineering solution can be
developed using any of these quantifications. A prototype technology for the selection of optimum fairways combines four ingredients: a high-resolution circulation
model, a method for calculating Lagrangian transport, a measure of environmental
risk and a method for selecting an optimum sailing line.
T. Soomere (B)
Wave Engineering Laboratory, Institute of Cybernetics at Tallinn University of Technology,
Akadeemia tee 21, 12618 Tallinn, Estonia
e-mail: soomere@cs.ioc.ee
T. Soomere
Estonian Academy of Sciences, Kohtu 6, 10130 Tallinn, Estonia
T. Soomere, E. Quak (eds.), Preventive Methods for Coastal Protection,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-00440-2_1,
© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2013
1
Towards Mitigation of Environmental Risks
Tarmo Soomere
Abstract This introductory chapter describes the background of a preventive technology for environmental management of remote risks associated with potentially
dangerous offshore activities. The notion of environmental risk caused by shipping
and offshore activities is introduced as the product of the probability of an accident
and the cost of its consequences. A new paradigm of remote environmental risks of
contemporary ship traffic is presented, with examples of the remote impact (such as
oil spill or wake waves) and a short outline of the challenges for ship routing based
on environmental criteria. Several pioneering solutions towards decreasing both the
local and the remote impact of ship traffic are discussed. The concept of the quantification of offshore and remote areas in terms of their potential as starting points of
pollution that after some time hits vulnerable areas is introduced, and related challenges are discussed. While the impact of wind and waves on pollution transport is
relatively well understood, the largest challenge is to take into account the presence
of semi-persistent patterns of currents and quantify their role in pollution propagation. An approximate solution to this inverse problem of pollution propagation
can be obtained using statistical analysis of a large pool of trajectories of selected
particles. There exist several meaningful ways of such a quantification of offshore
domains, for example, in terms of the probability of hitting vulnerable areas or of
the time it takes for the pollution to reach such areas. An engineering solution can be
developed using any of these quantifications. A prototype technology for the selection of optimum fairways combines four ingredients: a high-resolution circulation
model, a method for calculating Lagrangian transport, a measure of environmental
risk and a method for selecting an optimum sailing line.
T. Soomere (B)
Wave Engineering Laboratory, Institute of Cybernetics at Tallinn University of Technology,
Akadeemia tee 21, 12618 Tallinn, Estonia
e-mail: soomere@cs.ioc.ee
T. Soomere
Estonian Academy of Sciences, Kohtu 6, 10130 Tallinn, Estonia
T. Soomere, E. Quak (eds.), Preventive Methods for Coastal Protection,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-00440-2_1,
© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2013
1