1 Towards Mitigation of Environmental Risks
5
The cost of damage can be defined in a variety of ways. Three categories of the
consequences of an accident are usually considered:
• safety of people (loss of life, limb and health);
• economic aspects (damage to the ship or structure, equipment and cargo, etc.);
• environmental damage (damage to the ecosystem, coastal pollution, deterioration
of fish stocks, influence on the tourism industry, decrease in the prices for coastal
property, etc.).
The methods used for the estimates of the resulting damage and for the quantification of the risk R in the risk equation vary largely. The mathematical methods used
for minimizing the cost function are usually the same for all approaches. Consequently, a solution to the problem of minimizing certain costs can be generalized in
a straightforward manner to any other cost category. For this reason, we shall only
address the environmental damage in this book. In other words, the ‘severity’ or
cost C a of the potential consequences only accounts for the damage to the environment. For the same reason, we mostly perform the analysis from the viewpoint of
minimizing environmental damage caused directly or indirectly by ship traffic.
While the ‘price list’ for several economic costs is well-defined, there is considerable freedom in the calculation of environmental losses. On the one hand, this
feature makes the estimates of environmental risks more complicated and ambiguous. On the other hand, it provides substantial flexibility for the implementation of
different cost functions and thus for the pool of possible scenarios and estimates.
1.3 Changing Paradigms of Local and Remote Risks
The ever increasing density of marine transportation combined with a limited number of possible fairways results in an extreme concentration of ship traffic in certain
sea areas. Dangers are then traditionally associated with possible accidents (ship collisions or groundings, technical and navigation problems caused by severe weather
or human errors, etc.) that may lead to loss of lives or property, or to environmental pollution. The basic assumption in the treatment of shipping-related risks has
typically been that they are localized within a small area around the ship. Indeed a
ship accident occurs at a certain point and the possible contamination is transported
relatively slowly due to winds and currents.
Recently, the overall progress in shipping technology and an increasing awareness about the limits of the sustainability of marine ecosystems have led to a radical
change to this paradigm. The key alteration is that many by-products of the ship
traffic are actually not confined to a small vicinity of the vessel and even not located in small areas. The relevant list includes (but is not limited to) the growth
of exhaust emissions (Hobbs et al. 2000) capable of creating substantial changes
in the atmosphere at a height of many hundreds of meters above the sea surface
(Durkee et al. 2000), a significant increase in external noise (Boyd et al. 2008) and
waves generated by large high-speed ships in certain areas (Wood 2000; Parnell and
5
The cost of damage can be defined in a variety of ways. Three categories of the
consequences of an accident are usually considered:
• safety of people (loss of life, limb and health);
• economic aspects (damage to the ship or structure, equipment and cargo, etc.);
• environmental damage (damage to the ecosystem, coastal pollution, deterioration
of fish stocks, influence on the tourism industry, decrease in the prices for coastal
property, etc.).
The methods used for the estimates of the resulting damage and for the quantification of the risk R in the risk equation vary largely. The mathematical methods used
for minimizing the cost function are usually the same for all approaches. Consequently, a solution to the problem of minimizing certain costs can be generalized in
a straightforward manner to any other cost category. For this reason, we shall only
address the environmental damage in this book. In other words, the ‘severity’ or
cost C a of the potential consequences only accounts for the damage to the environment. For the same reason, we mostly perform the analysis from the viewpoint of
minimizing environmental damage caused directly or indirectly by ship traffic.
While the ‘price list’ for several economic costs is well-defined, there is considerable freedom in the calculation of environmental losses. On the one hand, this
feature makes the estimates of environmental risks more complicated and ambiguous. On the other hand, it provides substantial flexibility for the implementation of
different cost functions and thus for the pool of possible scenarios and estimates.
1.3 Changing Paradigms of Local and Remote Risks
The ever increasing density of marine transportation combined with a limited number of possible fairways results in an extreme concentration of ship traffic in certain
sea areas. Dangers are then traditionally associated with possible accidents (ship collisions or groundings, technical and navigation problems caused by severe weather
or human errors, etc.) that may lead to loss of lives or property, or to environmental pollution. The basic assumption in the treatment of shipping-related risks has
typically been that they are localized within a small area around the ship. Indeed a
ship accident occurs at a certain point and the possible contamination is transported
relatively slowly due to winds and currents.
Recently, the overall progress in shipping technology and an increasing awareness about the limits of the sustainability of marine ecosystems have led to a radical
change to this paradigm. The key alteration is that many by-products of the ship
traffic are actually not confined to a small vicinity of the vessel and even not located in small areas. The relevant list includes (but is not limited to) the growth
of exhaust emissions (Hobbs et al. 2000) capable of creating substantial changes
in the atmosphere at a height of many hundreds of meters above the sea surface
(Durkee et al. 2000), a significant increase in external noise (Boyd et al. 2008) and
waves generated by large high-speed ships in certain areas (Wood 2000; Parnell and