title: Integrated assessment for establishing an oil environmental vulnerability map: case study for the Santos Basin region, Brazil.
abstract: The growth of maritime transport and oil exploitation activities may increase the risk of oil spills. Thus, plans and actions to prevent or mitigate impacts are needed to minimize the effects caused by oil. However, tools used worldwide to support contingency plans have not been integrated, thus leading to failure in establishing priority areas. This investigation aimed to develop indices of environmental vulnerability to oil (IEVO), by combining information about environmental sensibility to oil and results of numerical modeling of spilled oil. To achieve that, a case study concerning to oil spills scenarios in a subtropical coastal area was designed, and IEVOs were calculated and presented in maps, in order to make the information about the areas' vulnerability more easily visualized. For summer, the extension of coastline potentially affected by oil was approximately 150 km, and most of the coastline presented medium to high vulnerability. For winter, 230 km coastline would be affected, from which 75% were classified as medium to high vulnerability. Thus, IEVO maps allowed a rapid and clearer interpretation of the vulnerability of the mapped region, facilitating the planning process and the actions in response to an oil spill.
authors.affiliation: UNESP, Campus Experimental do Litoral Paulista, Núcleo de Estudos sobre Poluição e Ecotoxicologia Aquática (NEPEA), Praça Infante Dom Henrique, s/n. São Vicente, São Paulo 11330-900, Brazil. Electronic address: agatafr@gmail.com.
authors.forename: A F
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Romero
authors.forename: D M S
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Abessa
authors.forename: R F C
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Fontes
authors.forename: G H
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Silva
mesh_terms: D001938:Brazil; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources / Q000379:methods*; D004189:Disaster Planning; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D059392:Petroleum Pollution / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012308:Risk Management / Q000379:methods*; D014877:Water Pollution, Chemical / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
keywords: ESI maps; Oil modeling; Oil spill; Santos Basin; Vulnerability to oil