title: Prioritization maps: The integration of environmental risks to manage water quality in harbor areas.
abstract: A method to integrate the environmental risk of the multiple effects from uses and activities developed in harbor areas is presented. Consequences are considered as the effects derived from all identified hazards. Vulnerability is expressed in terms of functional relations between environmental susceptibility against a disturbance and the state of protection of the receptors at risk. Consequences and vulnerability are integrated obtaining a spatial variation of risk: prioritization maps. The maps are developed by 4 main stages: (1) environmental hazard identification; (2) estimation of the consequences; (3) estimation of vulnerability and, (4) integration of environmental risks. To adapt prioritization maps to the peculiarities of the study area, three different methods for the integration of the effects are proposed: average-value, worst-case and weighted methods. The implementation to a real case (Tarragona harbor, NE Spain) confirms its usefulness as a risk analysis tool to communicate and support water quality management in harbors.
authors.affiliation: Environmental Hydraulics Institute, Universidad de Cantabria, Avda. Isabel Torres, 15, Parque Científico y Tecnológico de Cantabria, 39011 Santander, Spain. Electronic address: fernandezvp@unican.es.
authors.forename: Paloma F
authors.initials: PF
authors.lastname: Valdor
authors.affiliation: Environmental Hydraulics Institute, Universidad de Cantabria, Avda. Isabel Torres, 15, Parque Científico y Tecnológico de Cantabria, 39011 Santander, Spain. Electronic address: aina.gomez@unican.es.
authors.forename: Aina G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Gómez
authors.affiliation: Environmental Hydraulics Institute, Universidad de Cantabria, Avda. Isabel Torres, 15, Parque Científico y Tecnológico de Cantabria, 39011 Santander, Spain. Electronic address: barbara.ondiviela@unican.es.
authors.forename: Bárbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ondiviela
authors.affiliation: Environmental Hydraulics Institute, Universidad de Cantabria, Avda. Isabel Torres, 15, Parque Científico y Tecnológico de Cantabria, 39011 Santander, Spain. Electronic address: puentea@unican.es.
authors.forename: Araceli
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Puente
authors.affiliation: Environmental Hydraulics Institute, Universidad de Cantabria, Avda. Isabel Torres, 15, Parque Científico y Tecnológico de Cantabria, 39011 Santander, Spain. Electronic address: antonio.juanes@unican.es.
authors.forename: José A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Juanes
mesh_terms: D004777:Environment; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D009792:Oceans and Seas; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods*; D012623:Seawater; D013030:Spain; D062211:Spatio-Temporal Analysis; D060753:Water Quality
keywords: Cost-effective management; Harbor areas; Integration; Multiple stressors; Risk maps