Getting prepared for oil accidents

The Finnish Environment Institute has started developing a system with which it will be possible to be prepared for oil discharges and oil accidents. This work will combine knowledge from several branches: interpretation of satellite images, control of location information, processing of proliferation routes, and development of the interfaces of data technology.

Larger oil consumer countries, like the USA and Japan, are more and more excited about the northern oil resources, as the procurement from these areas will be more secure. According to the estimates concerning the year 2005, the oil transports in the Gulf of Finland will total about 100 million tons. The total in 1995 was 20 million tons. In view of this strong increase in risk it is important to be prepared.
"In the North oil is cold and in the South it is hot", says Head Engineer Kalervo Jolma from the Finnish Environment Institute SYKE. As a professional in oil combat, he will be one of the future users of the system. There is existing technology for oil prospecting and oil production but as far as oil combat is concerned there is still a lot to do, as the navigation conditions on the Gulf of Finland are difficult.
An arctic tool for everyday use ,"In our project, we are integrating information from different sources and building a real-time system in preparation for major accidents", states Yrjö Sucksdorff, the project manager from SYKE.
"We are producing an operative system for environmental administration that will locate oil discharges, and predict their likely directions, to be able to direct the oil combat measures in a precise way", Sucksdorff emphasises.
Oil changes the structure of the water surface and rounds out the sharpness of the waves. This is why it is so important also to find out about the other conditions, such as the algal floats changing the roughness of the water surface. This is why one of the research objects of this project is the probability of error observations.
Annually in the Baltic Sea area, the number of registered intentional oil discharges is nearly one thousand, but in reality the estimated number is ten times higher. This estimate is based on the efficient control operations by aeroplanes: they collect information about oil discharges in selected areas at times chosen randomly. The intentional oil discharges from ships are controlled by special equipment acquired by SYKE in connection with the patrol flights carried out by the Coast Guard control planes. These regular control flights are considered a kind of life insurance to maintain our readiness to face possible major catastrophes.
The project is part of the National Technology Agency Tekes' AVALI programme.
For more information:
Dr Yrjö Sucksdorff,E-mail: [e-mail],Finnish Environment Institute,Tel. [phone]
Jarkko Koskinen,E-mail: [e-mail],Tekes,Tel. [phone]
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