A new, free tool for oil spill response at sea is now available online for authorities and local response units. The aim of the tool is to minimize the environmental impacts of oil spills in the Arctic and around the world. The Finnish Environment Institute SYKE and Aarhus University have cooperated in the GRACE project to create a new planning tool to protect the sea.
The Environment & Oil Spill Response (EOS) tool can support decisions of inclusion of mechanical recovery, in situ burning, and chemical dispersants in national oil spill contingency plans. Although developed with a focus on the Arctic, the tool is generic and can be applied for any specific assessment area in the world wherever a risk of the oil spills may be present.
Image Credits: Lars Poort
Online interactive spreadsheet and handbook
The EOS tool consists of an interactive spreadsheet and a handbook. They both can be found on the EOS webpage of Aarhus University for free download. It is also possible to contact and give feedback to the scientists behind the response tool.
The EOS tool can be used for cross-border coordination of oil spill responses of the different involved countries. It can also serve as a platform to decide on oil spill response capacity and expertise building.
Besides the coordination of response activities, it is also possible to use the EOS tool in connection with specific oil exploration and exploitation activities such as contingency planning, risk assessments, and identification of knowledge gaps.
The EOS oil spill response tool concludes the work of the EU-funded GRACE project
The EOS tool was developed during the EU Horizon 2020 funded project GRACE, coordinated by the Finnish Environment Institute SYKE. Aarhus University in Denmark was responsible for the development of the EOS tool.
The GRACE project – concerning integrated oil spill response actions and their environmental effects – was implemented from 2016 to 2019 and focused on developing, comparing and evaluating the effectiveness and environmental effects of different oil spill response methods in a cold climate. Furthermore, the project is developed real-time observation of underwater oil spills.
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