title: Towards a common oil spill risk assessment framework – Adapting ISO 31000 and addressing uncertainties.
abstract: Oil spills are a transnational problem, and establishing a common standard methodology for Oil Spill Risk Assessments (OSRAs) is thus paramount in order to protect marine environments and coastal communities. In this study we firstly identified the strengths and weaknesses of the OSRAs carried out in various parts of the globe. We then searched for a generic and recognized standard, i.e. ISO 31000, in order to design a method to perform OSRAs in a scientific and standard way. The new framework was tested for the Lebanon oil spill that occurred in 2006 employing ensemble oil spill modeling to quantify the risks and uncertainties due to unknown spill characteristics. The application of the framework generated valuable visual instruments for the transparent communication of the risks, replacing the use of risk tolerance levels, and thus highlighting the priority areas to protect in case of an oil spill.
authors.affiliation: CIRSA, University of Bologna, Ravenna, Italy. Electronic address: augustosepp@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Antonio Augusto
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Sepp Neves
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: Nadia
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Pinardi
authors.affiliation: CIMA, University of Algarve, Faro, Portugal.
authors.forename: Flavio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Martins
authors.affiliation: CIMA, University of Algarve, Faro, Portugal.
authors.forename: Joao
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Janeiro
authors.affiliation: CIRI, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: Achilleas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Samaras
authors.affiliation: Oceanographic Center, University of Cyprus, Cyprus.
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zodiatis
authors.affiliation: Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: Michela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: De Dominicis
mesh_terms: D004777:Environment; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007861:Lebanon; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D010578:Petroleum / Q000032:analysis; D059392:Petroleum Pollution; D018570:Risk Assessment; D035501:Uncertainty
chemical_list: D010578:Petroleum
keywords: Ensemble oil spill modeling; ISO 31000; Lebanon spill case study; MEDSLIK-II; Oil spill risk assessment