1 Towards Mitigation of Environmental Risks
7
Fig. 1.1 The Prestige oil
spill in Spain demonstrated
how far oil can spread on the
sea surface. The vessel sank
about 100 miles offshore.
Courtesy of ESA
shipping routes (Schwehr and McGillivary 2007), or proper designation of marine
protected areas or particularly sensitive areas, and possible policies and regulations
(Ko and Chang 2010; Hassler 2011; Rusli 2012) to account for the effect that a
pollution accident would incur before it actually happens.
The challenge addressed in this book is how to minimize the follow-up damage to
the environment if an accident were to happen at some (previously undefined) point
of the journey. This is a standard procedure in the transport of dangerous goods over
both rail and road (Kara and Verter 2004). The relevant missions are commonly
limited to a specific itinerary such that sensitive (e.g., urban) areas and/or driving at
specific time intervals are systematically avoided. This basically static approach can
only be conditionally applied to the shipping and offshore industry. As described
above, a major marine accident is usually associated with a release of oil that indirectly affects an area at a long distance from the accident site. The endangered area
may thus extend to tens, and even hundreds of kilometres from the accident site. 3
Therefore restrictions for ship traffic to avoid e.g., spawning areas do not guarantee
that the oil pollution will not actually reach these areas.
The central goal of the work described in this book was to demonstrate that it
is possible and feasible to treat the potential influence of various offshore activities
(ship traffic, oil platforms, pipelines, mining, dumping, etc.) so that such non-local
effects are systematically accounted for. The key idea is, as in the rail or road trans3 There is, however, a clear parallel with the transport of adverse impacts by air flow after the release
of some gaseous substances in mainland accidents. These aspects have been studied in detail in the
context of acid rains and accidents in nuclear power stations (e.g., Vach and Duong 2011).
7
Fig. 1.1 The Prestige oil
spill in Spain demonstrated
how far oil can spread on the
sea surface. The vessel sank
about 100 miles offshore.
Courtesy of ESA
shipping routes (Schwehr and McGillivary 2007), or proper designation of marine
protected areas or particularly sensitive areas, and possible policies and regulations
(Ko and Chang 2010; Hassler 2011; Rusli 2012) to account for the effect that a
pollution accident would incur before it actually happens.
The challenge addressed in this book is how to minimize the follow-up damage to
the environment if an accident were to happen at some (previously undefined) point
of the journey. This is a standard procedure in the transport of dangerous goods over
both rail and road (Kara and Verter 2004). The relevant missions are commonly
limited to a specific itinerary such that sensitive (e.g., urban) areas and/or driving at
specific time intervals are systematically avoided. This basically static approach can
only be conditionally applied to the shipping and offshore industry. As described
above, a major marine accident is usually associated with a release of oil that indirectly affects an area at a long distance from the accident site. The endangered area
may thus extend to tens, and even hundreds of kilometres from the accident site. 3
Therefore restrictions for ship traffic to avoid e.g., spawning areas do not guarantee
that the oil pollution will not actually reach these areas.
The central goal of the work described in this book was to demonstrate that it
is possible and feasible to treat the potential influence of various offshore activities
(ship traffic, oil platforms, pipelines, mining, dumping, etc.) so that such non-local
effects are systematically accounted for. The key idea is, as in the rail or road trans3 There is, however, a clear parallel with the transport of adverse impacts by air flow after the release
of some gaseous substances in mainland accidents. These aspects have been studied in detail in the
context of acid rains and accidents in nuclear power stations (e.g., Vach and Duong 2011).