Development
Development projects are a substantial part of Akvaplan-niva’s group SensE’s project portfolio. The group participates in and also leads projects for developing methodology and tools for environmental risk assessments. Research studies are also carried out relating to specific challenges of operations in environmentally sensitive areas.
SensE is involved in and leads a large project consisting of several consultant companies working together to develop a new multicompartmental, multilevel model for risk assessments of acute oil spills for global application.
The team also takes on coordination projects where broad knowledge of marine life and operational challenges is important in coordinating the efforts of several scientists from different fields, and where a commmon goal is to be reached.
SensE also carries out detailed studies of biological and operational challenges of areas with a high risk of oil contamination. The projects involve photography and registrations of relevant environmental and operational resources and challenges, geotagging of the photographs in maps for use in various types of projects, including contingency plans.
Combining biological environmental sensitivity competence and detailed knowledge of operational conditions for spill response is also important when preparing plans for environmentally sensitive areas
where the natural environment conditions limit the options for cleanup. Such knowledge is used to create predefined sets of tools and decision basis for use i an incidence where the contributing factors are complex and decision-making is critical.
For more information contact: Cathrine Stephansen (cathrine.stephansen@akvaplan.niva.no)
The broad experience of the SensE staff obtained through working with both biological sensitivity issues of environmental risk assessments, as well as the operational side of oil spill cleanup, provides a unique basis for projects where scientific results are made into practical tools for operational use, and also to handle multidiciplinary issues in oil spill response.
