INTEGRATING LOCAL COMMUNITIES AND RESOURCES INTO OIL SPILL PLANNING, PREPAREDNESS AND RESPONSE

2008 ◽  
Vol 2008 (1) ◽  
pp. 591-596 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joselito Guevarra

ABSTRACT Presently, close to 2 billion tons of oil is transported annually via international marine oil network. The increasing number of ships, especially bigger ones, has brought a sense of heightened concern to countries living in or close to these maritime corridors. Specifically, the concern is that of a major oil spill. The devastation caused by a major spill is always relative - to the amount, oil type, weather conditions, and most especially the area of impact. Coastal communities are especially vulnerable and those that have been hit by large spills, like in the Philippines, have borne the brunt of its force to its livelihood, resources and habitat. And most often than not, especially in remote areas, they are at the frontlines of combating the spill, whether it be clean up or other response strategies. The problem is that local communities are rarely formally integrated into the response planning framework such as in oil spill contingency plans. With more than half the world'S population living along or near the coastline, this is a valuable human resource that is untapped. The Alaska Oil Spill Commission report entitled ‘Spill: the Wreck of the Exxon Valdez’ recognized the vital role of local interests, local knowledge and experience in the response effort and suggested that ‘substantive roles should be given to the affected communities in any response system.’ The aim of this paper is to examine the current practices worldwide through case studies of how local communities are assimilated into the response frameworks and how these best practices can be formulated into practical guidelines that can be implemented effectively.

2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 (1) ◽  
pp. 314-327
Author(s):  
Torild Ronnaug Nissen-Lie ◽  
Odd Willy Brude ◽  
Ole Oystein Aspholm ◽  
Peter Mark Taylor ◽  
David Davidson

ABSTRACT Following the April 2010 Gulf of Mexico (Macondo) oil spill and the 2009 Montara incident in Australia, the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers (OGP) formed the Global Industry Response Group. This Group identified nineteen oil spill response recommendations (OGP, 2011) that are being addressed via an Oil Spill Response Joint Industry Project (OSR-JIP) during 2012–2014. The OSR-JIP is managed by IPIECA on behalf of OGP, in recognition of IPIECA's long-standing experience with oil spill response matters. One of the nineteen recommendations concerned the development of an international guideline for offshore oil spill risk assessment and a method to better relate oil spill response resources to the risk level. Consequently, the OSR-JIP has published a guideline covering oil spill risk assessment and response planning for offshore installations. This paper describes the development and content of the guideline, including how the oil spill risk assessment process provides structured and relevant information to oil spill response planning for offshore operations. The process starts by defining the context of the assessment and describing the activity to be assessed. Thereafter it addresses a series of key questions:What can go wrong, leading to potential release of oil?What happens to the spilled oil?What are the impacts on key environmental - both ecological and socio-economic - receptors?What is the risk for environmental damage?How is the established risk utilised in oil spill response planning? The guideline draws on existing good practices in the determination of oil spill response resources. It promotes consideration, in tactical and logistical detail, of the preferred and viable response strategies to address scenarios covering the range of potential oil spills up to the most serious. The methodology to evaluate the potential spill scenarios utilizes a series of questions:What are the viable techniques/strategies to deliver response with greatest net environment benefit?What are the tactical measures required to implement the identified response strategies, considering technical, practical and safety factors?What Tiered resources are required to mount the tactical measures and achieve effective response? The paper summarizes the useful tools, key information and the necessary level of detail essential to perform an oil spill risk assessment for use in oil spill response planning.


2005 ◽  
Vol 2005 (1) ◽  
pp. 349-352
Author(s):  
Curt Clumpner

ABSTRACT When an oil spill impacts wildlife, the success of the wildlife response often depends on the quality of the preplanning and the responders ability to manage the factors that they can control. While factors such as season and weather, seasonal behavior and lifecycle stages of wildlife cannot be controlled, training of personal, equipment caches and pre-identifying facilities can have a huge influence on the success or failure or a wildlife response. Effective planning prior to the event is the only way to assure maximum preparedness and effective response. Wildlife response planning has become a key component of oil spill preparedness and response. With the recent publication of the IPIECA Report: A Guide to Oiled Wildlife Response Planning, planning for wildlife response has become an accepted and expected component of any oil spill contingency plan. Depending on available resources, appropriate response strategies may include any of a variety of tools: assessing impacts, use of dispersants, protective booming, hazing, wildlife rehabilitation and euthanasia. A good wildlife plan should address each of these issues and provide the information and guidance to necessary for responders to make appropriate and timely decisions that will maximize the success execution of the plan and the objectives of the specific response. This paper will outline the components necessary in a good wildlife plan within a framework that should be familiar to oil spill response planners. It will include a strategy section, an action section and a data section. As with every other phase of the response there are a variety of factors that affect the success of the wildlife plan. These include efficient management of all resources including the human resources, equipment and facilities. Quick initiation of the operations is critical to minimize the time between oiling of animals when they are collected and rehabilitation initiated. This paper will provide a framework for planners or responders with little or no wildlife experience to assist them in planning for the wildlife component within the overall response.


2001 ◽  
Vol 2001 (1) ◽  
pp. 177-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Kraly ◽  
Robert G. Pond ◽  
Ann Hayward Walker ◽  
John Caplis ◽  
Don V. Aurand ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT This paper summarizes the process of a cooperative ecological risk assessment (ERA) that was used to examine the potential environmental consequences of oil spill scenarios in San Francisco Bay, California; Galveston Bay, Texas; and Puget Sound, Washington. The purpose of the ERA process is to evaluate the ecological trade-offs associated with the use of each of five potential oil spill removal options—natural recovery, on-water mechanical recovery, shoreline cleanup, dispersant use, and on-water in situ burning. The desired outcome of the evaluation is identification of the optimum mix of response options in reducing injury to each specific environment. Evaluations at each location were accomplished through a series of facilitated workshops involving technical experts and resource managers from as many stakeholder organizations as possible. At these workshops, the participants developed relative ecological risk evaluations for response options. At the conclusion of each ERA, the workshop participants felt that the cooperative ERA process had the potential to become an integral part of the area contingency planning process by facilitating the assessment of the effectiveness of response strategies contained in an Area Contingency Plan (ACP). Repeated application of the process for various scenarios should enable an area committee to optimize response strategies over time by maximizing net environmental benefit. This paper describes the process used by the participants and presents a simplified version of the ERA process amenable to shorter timeframes and consequently more scenarios.


1995 ◽  
Vol 1995 (1) ◽  
pp. 695-699
Author(s):  
Audrey A. McKinley ◽  
Agamemnon Gus Pantel

ABSTRACT Heritage resources were a significant concern during the Morris J. Berman oil spill response, which began on January 7, 1994, in Puerto Rico. Numerous pre-Columbian artifacts and archeological sites, along with some of the oldest historic structures under U. S. jurisdiction were at risk from the spreading oil and subsequent response activities. A group of interagency professionals quickly formed into what was soon known as the Heritage Resources Management Team to deal with the myriad evolving issues involving heritage resources. Discovering success in a team approach, this core team became an integral, high-performing part of the larger response organization. Although this paper presents a case study of how heritage resources were tackled during the Morris J. Berman oil spill response, the decision-making and problem-solving methods described are applicable to any response effort. Incorporating heritage resource protection strategies in response planning and organization is crucial for mitigating future threats to these priceless remains of our history.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 (1) ◽  
pp. 300313 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eoin Howlett ◽  
Nicole Mulanaphy ◽  
Andrew Menton ◽  
Stephen Sontag

When oil is spilled in a marine environment the impact can be catastrophic to a sensitive region damaging natural resources. It is important to respond quickly and efficiently to maximize the response effort and minimize the impact. In order to plan and train for incidents within the Shannon Estuary in Ireland, The Shannon Estuary Anti-Pollution Team (SEAPT) required a centralized system for its members to allow for remote collaboration and effective response. SEAPT required the ability to seamlessly run and share oil spill models in conjunction with their response planning assets and sensitivity and vulnerability information. RPS ASA leveraged OilmapWeb, a web based oil spill modeling system, as a platform to build a custom oil spill modeling and response system. This customized system allows remote users to run and retrieve oil spill models and relate the output to GIS and multimedia response information. This decision tool is designed to produce fast and accurate results to improve response times and deploy the most effective response plans. The system provides a common operational picture for this region allowing for greater response collaboration and increased preparedness. This helps SEAPT to improve their response planning and facilities the sharing of information remotely in the case of an incident.


2020 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Vivienne Dunstan

McIntyre, in his seminal work on Scottish franchise courts, argues that these courts were in decline in this period, and of little relevance to their local population. 1 But was that really the case? This paper explores that question, using a particularly rich set of local court records. By analysing the functions and significance of one particular court it assesses the role of this one court within its local area, and considers whether it really was in decline at this time, or if it continued to perform a vital role in its local community. The period studied is the mid to late seventeenth century, a period of considerable upheaval in Scottish life, that has attracted considerable attention from scholars, though often less on the experiences of local communities and people.


2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (06) ◽  
pp. 4589 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vardan Singh Rawat

The present study was conducted in the Thalisain block of Pauri Garhwal to document the medicinal plants used by the local communities. 53 plant species distributed in 38 families were documented. Of the total plant species 49% were herbs, 26% trees, 23% shrubs and 2% climbers. 16 different plant parts were used by local communities for different ailments. Medicinal plants were widely used by major sections of the community against common colds, cough, skin diseases, snake bite, fever, joint pains, bronchitis etc. Women and local healers called vaids have a vital role in environmental management due to traditional knowledge and use of plants as medicine with undocumented knowledge. It has been observed as one of the best option of sustainable livelihoods for the residents of the area.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 127
Author(s):  
Jay Mar D. Quevedo ◽  
Yuta Uchiyama ◽  
Kevin Muhamad Lukman ◽  
Ryo Kohsaka

Blue carbon ecosystem (BCE) initiatives in the Coral Triangle Region (CTR) are increasing due to their amplified recognition in mitigating global climate change. Although transdisciplinary approaches in the “blue carbon” discourse and collaborative actions are gaining momentum in the international and national arenas, more work is still needed at the local level. The study pursues how BCE initiatives permeate through the local communities in the Philippines and Indonesia, as part of CTR. Using perception surveys, the coastal residents from Busuanga, Philippines, and Karimunjawa, Indonesia were interviewed on their awareness, utilization, perceived threats, and management strategies for BCEs. Potential factors affecting residents’ perceptions were explored using multivariate regression and correlation analyses. Also, a comparative analysis was done to determine distinctions and commonalities in perceptions as influenced by site-specific scenarios. Results show that, despite respondents presenting relatively high awareness of BCE services, levels of utilization are low with 42.9–92.9% and 23.4–85.1% respondents in Busuanga and Karimunjawa, respectively, not directly utilizing BCE resources. Regression analysis showed that respondents’ occupation significantly influenced their utilization rate and observed opposite correlations in Busuanga (positive) and Karimunjawa (negative). Perceived threats are found to be driven by personal experiences—occurrence of natural disasters in Busuanga whereas discerned anthropogenic activities (i.e., land-use conversion) in Karimunjawa. Meanwhile, recognized management strategies are influenced by the strong presence of relevant agencies like non-government and people’s organizations in Busuanga and the local government in Karimunjawa. These results can be translated as useful metrics in contextualizing and/or enhancing BCE management plans specifically in strategizing advocacy campaigns and engagement of local stakeholders across the CTR.


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