ABSTRACT
An oil spill risk assessment determines the likelihood of accident occurrence and potential consequences of a spill when the spill occurs. An essential part of the risk assessment is an environmental impact assessment. The impact assessment identifies resources at risk and examines potential environmental contamination. Computer models can be used in conjunction with resource distributions to predict the impact of an oil spill. This paper provides an overview of the methodology used in assessing environmental impacts from an oil spill and examines various oil spill-modeling tools. The Regulatory Assessment: Use of Tug to Protect Against Oil Spills in the Puget Sound Area (USCG, 1999) includes a Qualitative Environmental Impact Assessment that serves as a case study demonstrating the environmental impact assessment process. The U.S. Coast Guard used this Regulatory Assessment to study the alternatives for improving maritime safety in the Puget Sound area. The following are elements and approaches adopted for the impact assessment:Problem formulation. Problem formulation is a planning and scoping process that establishes the goals, breadth, and focus of the risk analysis. A conceptual model is developed to identify environmental resources to be protected, data needed, and analysis to be used.Analysis. This analysis phase develops profiles of environmental exposure and effects of oil spills. The exposure profile characterizes the ecosystem that may be exposed and describes the magnitude and pattern of exposure.Validation. The validation process is a crucial step in defining the reliability of modeling environmental impacts. The use of several oil spill models can minimize the weakness and assumptions associated with each model. Actual spill incidents provide a range and magnitude of possible environmental damages, which further validate model results.
Towards More Holistic Environmental Impact Assessment: Hybridisation of Life Cycle Assessment and Quantitative Risk Assessment
