The use of environmental sensitivity indices (ESI) maps for the evaluation of oil spill risk in Mediterranean coastlines and coastal waters

Abstract

This paper presents a project devoted to identifying the environmental, historical and morphologically most sensitive and vulnerable priorities of the coastlines, with a view to providing decision-makers with sensitivity index maps for the planning of preventive actions and emergency responses in the event of an unforeseen outflow of hydrocarbons. The sensitivity index maps give information established by environmental sensitivity indices (ESI), represented in the maps with different lines and colours. Due to the considerable diversity in ecosystems and morphology in the Mediterranean and on account of the unique importance of the archaeological, historic and landscape sites along the Italian coastline, the decision was taken to extrapolate the ESI values on the basis of the matrices elaborated by Cinquepalmi et al (Prevention of hydrocarbons sea pollution: Sensitivity Index Maps for the Venice Lagoon as integral component of oil-spill contingency planning and response. Environmental Coastal Regions. WIT Transaction of Ecology and the Environmental volume 25. WIT Press, 1998) in a previous study with a similar aim on the Lagoon of Venice. With respect to the previous study a more simple core set of ESI was obtained from new matrices created in order to be used in the Mediterranean ecosystems: natural coastline, water stretches and artificial features. The resultant indices identify a single number that expresses all the qualitative and quantitative traits of the Italian coastline, both for land and seascapes, in clear maps of simple use. Environmental Sensitivity Maps offer a useful contribution to the prevention of pollution from oil spills and for combating the consequences of a possible accident along Mediterranean coastlines. They also constitute the most complete database, useful both for risk response and for an Integrated Coastal Zone Management.

A Sediment Detection Analysis with Multi Sensor Satellites: Caspian Sea and Persian Gulf case studies

“…Suspended sediments not only play an important role on the ecosystem [13] and the environment [14], on water quality [15], nutrient circulation [15], fish and shellfish populations [17], but also in the analysis of crust evolution [18], climate changes [19] and biogeochemical cycling of pollutants [20], and oil spill dispersion [21][22][23], impact [24] and risk [25]- [26]. Many factors can affect the suspended sediment distribution in the coastal sea and ocean waters: e.g.…”

Mapping Sea Water Surface in Persian Gulf, Oil Spill Detection Using Sentinal-1 Images

“…As a matter of fact, in 2016, solar PV systems accounted for 47% of the total newly installed power capacity, followed by wind power with 34% and hydropower at 15.5% [6]. Research is now moving towards the concept of Smart Energy Systems (SES) [7] thus studying integrated systems aiming at coupling and improving the main energy sector [8][9] on the other hand, the focus is also increasing in the field of air and sea pollution evaluation [10][11][12] environment sensitivity [13][14][15] and risk assessment, especially those due to oil spill events [16][17][18][19][20].…”

Nearshore Wave Energy Assessment of Iranian Coastlines

“…Global energy demand is expected to increase around 35% from 2010 to 2040 [2]. Thus, on one hand the number of researches about coastal and marine areas risk assessment [3][4], oil spill detection [5][6][7][8][9] biodiversity vulnerability [10] hazardous and noxious substances risk assessment [11] is ever increasing; on the other hand a transition to alternative, low-carbon and Renewable Energy Sources (RES) is now a fact [12][13][14][15][16][17] even if fossil fuels still cover about the 80% of the total primary energy consumption [18] In this context, wind and solar energy have assumed a leading role [19] while exploitation of wave energy became one of the most challenging technological issues [20]. The worldwide theoretical wave power potential has been calculated as 29,500 TWh/y [21].…”