title: Offshore oil spill response practices and emerging challenges.
abstract: Offshore oil spills are of tremendous concern due to their potential impact on economic and ecological systems. A number of major oil spills triggered worldwide consciousness of oil spill preparedness and response. Challenges remain in diverse aspects such as oil spill monitoring, analysis, assessment, contingency planning, response, cleanup, and decision support. This article provides a comprehensive review of the current situations and impacts of offshore oil spills, as well as the policies and technologies in offshore oil spill response and countermeasures. Correspondingly, new strategies and a decision support framework are recommended for improving the capacities and effectiveness of oil spill response and countermeasures. In addition, the emerging challenges in cold and harsh environments are reviewed with recommendations due to increasing risk of oil spills in the northern regions from the expansion of the Arctic Passage.
authors.affiliation: Northern Region Persistent Organic Pollution Control (NRPOP) Laboratory, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NL, Canada, A1B 3X5.
authors.forename: Pu
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Northern Region Persistent Organic Pollution Control (NRPOP) Laboratory, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NL, Canada, A1B 3X5.
authors.forename: Qinhong
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.affiliation: Northern Region Persistent Organic Pollution Control (NRPOP) Laboratory, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NL, Canada, A1B 3X5.
authors.forename: Weiyun
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: Northern Region Persistent Organic Pollution Control (NRPOP) Laboratory, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NL, Canada, A1B 3X5. Electronic address: bchen@mun.ca.
authors.forename: Bing
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Northern Region Persistent Organic Pollution Control (NRPOP) Laboratory, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NL, Canada, A1B 3X5. Electronic address: bzhang@mun.ca.
authors.forename: Baiyu
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D001110:Arctic Regions; D017753:Ecosystem; D004777:Environment; D059392:Petroleum Pollution; D018570:Risk Assessment
keywords: Cold and harsh environments; Contingency planning; Modeling and decision making; Offshore oil spills; Oil spill response and cleanup