Challenges With Oil Spill Risk Assessment in Arctic Regions: Shipping Along the Northern Sea Route

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexei Bambulyak ◽  
Rudiger U. Franz von Bock und Polach ◽  
Sören Ehlers ◽  
Are Sydnes
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Oil Spill ◽  
Industrial Development ◽  
Oil Spills ◽  
Risk Mitigation ◽  
Geographic Area ◽  
Mitigation Measures ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
Arctic Regions ◽  
Northern Sea Route

Arctic regions, and thus ice-covered waters, are continuously getting higher in the national and international political agenda. The world demand in energy resources and the need in development of new transportation routes are pushing industrial activities up North where we see prospects and expectations on one side, and gaps and challenges on the other. Industrial development of the new geographic area is complex, and the priority in transportation is given to marine shipping. For the recent years, transit cargo shipping through the North Eastern Passage or the Northern Sea Route (NSR) increased more than 10 times from 0.11 million tons (4 passages) in 2010 to 1.36 million tons (71 passages) in 2013. Although, the numbers are small compared to global cargo shipping, the sensitive Arctic environment requires the establishment of a oil spill recovery system as well as risk mitigation measures. This, in turn, requires the preceding development of a risk assessment methodology for oil spills in ice-covered waters. Therefore, this paper presents the challenges involved in Arctic shipping along the NSR and identifies the knowledge gaps with respect to environmental risk assessment of accidental oil spill.

Development of An Exposure Model for Bridge Structures in Northern Algeria

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrés Abarca ◽  
Ricardo Monteiro
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Risk Mitigation ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Mitigation Measures ◽  
Exposure Model ◽  
Building Stock ◽  
Earthquake Scenarios ◽  
Northern Algeria ◽  
Bridge Structures

In recent years, the use of large scale seismic risk assessment has become increasingly popular to evaluate the fragility of a specific region to an earthquake event, through the convolution of hazard, exposure and vulnerability. These studies tend to focus on the building stock of the region and sometimes neglect the evaluation of the infrastructure, which has great importance when determining the ability of a social group to attend to a disaster and to eventually resume normal activities. This study, developed within the scope of the EU-funded project ITERATE (Improved Tools for Disaster Risk Mitigation in Algeria), focuses on the proposal of an exposure model for bridge structures in Northern Algeria. The proposed model was developed using existing national data surveys, as well as satellite information and field observations. As a result, the location and detailed characterization of a significant share of the Algeria roadway bridge inventory was developed, as well as the definition of a taxonomy that is able to classify the most common structural systems used in Algerian bridge construction. The outcome of this study serves as input to estimate the fragility of the bridge infrastructure inventory and, furthermore, to the overall risk assessment of the Northern Algerian region. Such fragility model will, in turn, enable the evaluation of earthquake scenarios at a regional scale and provide valuable information to decision makers for the implementation of risk mitigation measures.

Oil spill risk assessment for a Single Buoy Mooring terminal in the Port of Taranto (Southern Italy)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Svitlana Liubartseva ◽  
Ivan Federico ◽  
Giovanni Coppini ◽  
Rita Lecci
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Oil Spill ◽  
Oil Spills ◽  
Cost Benefit Analysis ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
Oil Refinery ◽  
Plant Oil ◽  
Contamination Assessment ◽  
Subsea Pipeline ◽  
Oil Pipeline

<p>Being situated in a semi-enclosed Mediterranean lagoon, the Port of Taranto represents a transport, industrial and commercial hub, where the port infrastructure, a notorious steel plant, oil refinery and naval shipyards coexist with highly-dense urban zone, recreation facilities, mussel farms, and vulnerable environmental sites. A Single Buoy Mooring in the center of the Mar Grande used by tankers and subsea pipeline that takes oil directly from tanker to refinery are assumed to stay at risk of accidental oil spills, despite significant progress in technology and prevention.</p><p>The oil spill model MEDSLIK-II (http://medslik-ii.org) coupled to the high resolution Southern Adriatic Northern Ionian coastal Forecasting System (SANIFS http://sanifs.cmcc.it Federico et al., 2017) is used to model hypothetical oil spill scenarios in stochastic mode. 15,000+ hypothetical individual spills are generated from randomly selected start locations: 50% from a buoy and 50% along the subsea pipeline 2018–2020. Individual spill scenario is based on a real crude oil spill caused by a catastrophic pipeline failure happened in Genoa in April 2016 (Vairo et al., 2017). The model outputs are processed statistically to represent quantitively: (1) timing of the oil drift; (2) hazard maps in probability terms at the sea surface and on the coastline; (3) oil mass balance; (4) local-zone contamination assessment.</p><p>The simulations reveal that around 48% of the spilled oil will evaporate during the first 8 hours after the accident. Being transported by highly variable currents and waves, the rest is additionally exposed to multiply reflections from sea walls and concrete wharfs that dominate in the study area. As a result, the oil will be dispersed almost isotropically in the Mar Grande, indicating a rather moderate or small level of concentrations over the minimum threshold values (French McCay, 2016).</p><p>We have concluded that at a probability of 50%, the first oil beaching event will happen within 14 hours after the accident. The most contaminated areas are predicted on and around the nearest Port berths, on the coastlines of the urban area and on the tips of the breakwaters that frame the Mar Grande openings. The remote areas of the West Port and Mar Piccolo are expected to be the least contaminated ones.</p><p>Results are applicable to contingency planning, ecological risk assessment, cost-benefit analysis, and education.</p><p>This work is conducted in the framework of the IMPRESSIVE project (#821922) co-funded by the European Commission under the H2020 Programme.</p><p>References</p><p>Federico, I., Pinardi, N., Coppini, G., Oddo, P., Lecci, R., Mossa, M., 2017. Coastal ocean forecasting with an unstructured grid model in the southern Adriatic and northern Ionian seas. Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 17, 45–59, doi: 10.5194/nhess-17-45-2017.</p><p>French McCay, D., 2016. Potential effects thresholds for oil spill risk assessments. Proc. of the 39 AMOP Tech. Sem., Environment and Climate Change Canada, Ottawa, ON, 285–303.</p><p>Vairo, T., Magrì, S., Qualgliati, M., Reverberi, A.P., Fabiano, B., 2017. An oil pipeline catastrophic failure: accident scenario modelling and emergency response development. Chem. Eng. Trans., 57, 373–378, doi: 10.3303/CET1757063.</p>

Credit Risk Management of Commercial Banks in Nepal

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-37
Author(s):  
Shreya Pradhan ◽  
Ajay K. Shah
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Risk Management ◽  
Credit Risk ◽  
Commercial Banks ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Risk Mitigation ◽  
Mitigation Measures ◽  
Credit Risk Management ◽  
Loan Repayment ◽  
Credit Risk Assessment

The study is primarily focused on credit risk assessment practices in commercial banks on the basis of their internal efficiency, assessment of assets and borrower. The model of the study is based on the analysis of relationship between credit risk management practices, credit risk mitigation measures and obstacles and loan repayment. Based on a descriptive research approach the study has used survey-based primary data and performed a correlation analysis on them. It discovered that credit risk management practices and credit risk mitigation measures have a positive relationship with loan repayment, while obstacles faced by borrowers have no significant relationship with loan repayment. The study findings can provide good insights to commercial bank managers in analysing their model of credit risk management system, policies and practices, and in establishing a profitable and sustainable model for credit risk assessment, by setting a risk tolerance level and managing credit risks vis-a-vis the prevailing market competition.

Arc flash: a risk assessment and mitigation strategy

2011 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 737
Author(s):  
Danny Norton ◽  
Dale Wright
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Capital Expenditure ◽  
Risk Mitigation ◽  
Cumulative Effect ◽  
Mitigation Strategy ◽  
Assessment Process ◽  
Mitigation Measures ◽  
Safe Work ◽  
Arc Flash

Oil and gas facility managers are well aware that attention to detail saves lives and supports business continuity and reputation. Those tasked with stewardship of electrical assets will be aware of the need to protect their employees from the hazard of electrical arc flash and that it should be at the forefront of safety thinking. Complacency and lack of duty of care with this real and possibly un-quantified hazard can lead to fatalities. The primary solution to arc flash consequences in older installations has been the implementation of safe work procedures and personal protective equipment. While still valid, these solutions are the least effective options in the hierarchy of controls. SKM have developed a practical risk mitigation strategy that considers the hazards of prospective arc flash energy together with the cumulative effect of switchboard age, design, capability and condition. The strategy also considers the range of potential mitigation controls available through the mechanism of substitution and engineering design that focuses on reducing: The likelihood of an arc flash incident occurring; The likelihood of personnel exposure; and, The energy released should an incident occur. A structured arc flash risk assessment process can provide the asset owner the opportunity to rank individual switchboards for likelihood, consequence and risk, and thus provide direction for engineered remediation and capital expenditure. SKM proposes the way in which arc flash risk can be assessed, how appropriate layered mitigation measures might be selected, and how an asset owner may approach the issue of arc flash hazard mitigation to economically and reliably protect its employees.

scholarly journals A Behavioral Probabilistic Risk Assessment Framework for Managing Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Deployments

2012 ◽  
Vol 29 (11) ◽  
pp. 1689-1703 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mario Brito ◽  
Gwyn Griffiths ◽  
James Ferguson ◽  
David Hopkin ◽  
Richard Mills ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Autonomous Underwater Vehicle ◽  
Risk Mitigation ◽  
Operational Risk ◽  
Maximum Error ◽  
Underwater Vehicle ◽  
Behavioral Approach ◽  
Mitigation Measures ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Deep Diving

Abstract The deployment of a deep-diving long-range autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) is a complex operation that requires the use of a risk-informed decision-making process. Operational risk assessment is heavily dependent on expert subjective judgment. Expert judgments can be elicited either mathematically or behaviorally. During mathematical elicitation experts are kept separate and provide their assessment individually. These are then mathematically combined to create a judgment that represents the group view. The limitation with this approach is that experts do not have the opportunity to discuss different views and thus remove bias from their assessment. In this paper, a Bayesian behavioral approach to estimate and manage AUV operational risk is proposed. At an initial workshop, behavioral aggregation, that is, reaching agreement on the distributions of risks for faults or incidents, is followed by an agreed upon initial estimate of the likelihood of success of the proposed risk mitigation methods. Postexpedition, a second workshop assesses the new data and compares observed to predicted risk, thus updating the prior estimate using Bayes’ rule. This feedback further educates the experts and assesses the actual effectiveness of the mitigation measures. Applying this approach to an AUV campaign in ice-covered waters in the Arctic showed that the maximum error between the predicted and the actual risk was 9% and that the experts’ assessments of the effectiveness of risk mitigation led to a maximum of 24% in risk reduction.

scholarly journals Approaches and Application of Comparative Risk Assessment Concepts to Oil Spill Preparedness Planning and Response

2003 ◽  
Vol 2003 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Igor Linkov ◽  
Jim R. Clark
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Oil Spill ◽  
Oil Spills ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
Environmental Policies ◽  
Comparative Risk Assessment ◽  
Preparedness Planning ◽  
Benefit Evaluation ◽  
Comparative Risk ◽  
The Cost

ABSTRACT Comparative Risk Assessment (CRA) is emerging as a methodology that may be applied to facilitate decision-making when various possible activities compete for limited resources. The CRA framework may be an especially valuable tool for prioritization of remediation efforts and for making choices among various environmental policies specific to oil industry operations. This paper will show that CRA is an efficient and cost-saving tool that assists in developing oil spill response priorities based on the broadest possible range of concerns and issues important to all stakeholders. In addition, the CRA approach allows the cost/benefit evaluation of alternative environmental policies and strategies relative to the baseline risks and disruptions associated with oil spills (as well as other costs and benefits of petroleum use).

scholarly journals A guide to toxicity assessment and monitoring effects at lower levels of biological organization following marine oil spills in European waters

2010 ◽  
Vol 67 (6) ◽  
pp. 1105-1118 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Martínez-Gómez ◽  
A. D. Vethaak ◽  
K. Hylland ◽  
T. Burgeot ◽  
A. Köhler ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Oil Spill ◽  
Oil Spills ◽  
Biological Effects ◽  
Toxicity Assessment ◽  
Biological Organization ◽  
Marine Oil ◽  
Assessment And Monitoring ◽  
Marine Oil Spills ◽  
Selection Of

Abstract Martínez-Gómez, C., Vethaak, A. D., Hylland, K., Burgeot, T., Köhler, A., Lyons, B. P., Thain, J., Gubbins, M. J., and Davies, I. M. 2010. A guide to toxicity assessment and monitoring effects at lower levels of biological organization following marine oil spills in European waters. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 67: 1105–1118. The usefulness of applying biological-effects techniques (bioassays and biomarkers) as tools to assist in evaluating damage to the health of marine ecosystems produced by oil spills has been demonstrated clearly during recent decades. Guidelines are provided for the use of biological-effects techniques in oil spill pollution monitoring for the NE Atlantic coasts and the NW Mediterranean Sea. The emphasis is on fish and invertebrates and on methods at lower levels of organization (in vitro, suborganismal, and individual). Guidance is provided to researchers and environmental managers on: hazard identification of the fuel oil released; selection of appropriate bioassays and biomarkers for environmental risk assessment; selection of sentinel species; the design of spatial and temporal surveys; and the control of potential confounding factors in the sampling and interpretation of biological-effects data. It is proposed that after an oil spill incident, a monitoring programme using integrated chemical and biological techniques be initiated as soon as possible for ecological risk assessment, pollution control, and monitoring the efficacy of remediation. This can be done by developing new biomonitoring programmes or by adding appropriate biological-effects methods to the existing monitoring programmes.

Risk Assessment of Ship Oil Spills in the Ningbo-Zhoushan Port

2014 ◽  
Vol 635-637 ◽  
pp. 462-467
Author(s):  
Ya Peng Zhao
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factors ◽  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Oil Spill ◽  
Oil Spills ◽  
Marine Pollution ◽  
Evaluation Model ◽  
Fuzzy Evaluation ◽  
Accident Probability ◽  
Accident Data

The accidents of ship oil spill have been one of the most significant factors leading to marine pollution, so appropriate approaches to forecast ship oil spill risk has important significance. Risk assessment of ship oil spills is a complex multi-factor issue, which plays a key role of ship oil-spill emergency response. A novel fuzzy evaluation model for risk assessment of ship oil spill is presented by analyzing historic accident data and expert experience. The model is used to compute comprehensive accident probability of ship oil spill and analyze sensitivity of risk factors so as to evaluate ship oil spill risks quantitatively and find out major risk factors which influedce ship oil spill risk. At last, the presented model is applied to study the ship oil spill risk in Ningbo-zhoushan port, the assessment examples are proved to test the feasibility and reliability of the model.

scholarly journals Evaluation and Management of Patients with Methomyl Poisoning – A Case Report

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (C) ◽  
pp. 76-81
Author(s):  
Leonardo Pennisi ◽  
Anna Lepore ◽  
Luigi Santacroce ◽  
Roberto Gagliano-Candela ◽  
Ioannis Alexandros Charitos
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Emergency Services ◽  
Risk Mitigation ◽  
Competent Authority ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Mitigation Measures ◽  
Poison Centre ◽  
Increase Product Quality ◽  
Flow Of Information ◽  
Product Quality Improvement

The Apulian Poison Centre (PC) of Foggia, Italy, annually manages numerous consultations concerning certain or suspected poisonings from pesticides, starting at the same time a careful activity related to the risk assessment phase. The management of the exposure to pesticides and to other chemicals, and the alerting of the “National center for chemicals, cosmetics and consumer protection” at the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS), actively contributes to the improvement of products quality and safety. Thus, leading to a reduction in the number of intoxications - and therefore of the accesses to the emergency services - allows greater protection for workers, bystanders, residents and consumers. The reported case of methomyl poisoning has been of fundamental importance both from the medical point of view and for the management of the intoxicated patient, both for the risk assessment actions, and for cooperation with the competent authorities, generating discussion points on the regulations in force between PCs and National Competent Authority. It follows that the feedback of intoxication in an emergency can lead to improvements in the management and risk mitigation measures in order to reach a greater protection of human, animal, and environmental health. In addition, the regulatory feedback deriving from these reports is an input to the increase product quality improvement (mixtures, labels, packaging, and risk communication) leading to a greater protection of potential exposed subjects. The importance of creating an information and management network that allows the optimization of the flow of information deriving from PCs arises. The actions taken are therefore described, both relating to the management of the emergency, and relating to the subsequent information flow and to the measures for containing the consequent risks.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document