risk assessment and environmental monitoring in port areas

Risk assessment and environmental monitoring in port areas

- general overview -Rodrigo Fernandes

1

The environmental problem

2

The environmental problem

▪ Ballast water exchange:• new populations of non-indigenous species (NIS)

• can cause physical and behavioral disturbances to native organisms– competition for food, space and other resources

• Mixed island systems and lake, river and nearshore marine systems are especially vulnerable

Potentially, this can cause severe economic and ecological damage.

3

Existing regulations on BW

▪ Exemptions to regulation D2 can be eventually granted under specific conditions (“under scientifically robust risk assessment”)

4


Exemptions under Resolution MEPC.289(71):“Regulation A-4 of the Convention states that a Party or Parties, in waters under their jurisdiction may grant exemptions to any requirements to apply regulation B-3 or C-1, in addition to those exemptions contained elsewhere in the Convention, but only when they are:▪ .1 granted to a ship or ships on a voyage or voyages between

specified ports or locations; or to a ship which operates exclusively between specified ports or locations;

▪ .2 effective for a period of no more than five years subject to intermediate review;

▪ .3 granted to ships that do not mix ballast water or sediments other than between the ports or locations specified in paragraph 2.1.1; and

▪ .4 granted based on the Guidelines for risk assessment developed by the Organization.”

5

The problem

▪ NIS associated to ballast waters are a global environmental threat to biodiversity

▪ New international law enforces ship discharge control, members-states must inspect discharges

▪ BW treatment (in ship and in ports) will not become immediately fully operational (BluePortsis trying to accelerate this transition process). Only in Sept 2024 all ships must comply D2 standard.

▪ At least before full implementation (Sept 2024), environmental risks should be contained

6

Environmental challenges: How can @BluePorts help?

1. Support ports for provision of BW treatment services (opportunity for testing & piloting mobile treatment)

2. Support national authorities with methodologies for effective and efficient ship inspections at BW discharge in port

3. Support port authorities with methodologies for adequate monitoring and risk management in the port receiving waters

4. Help national authorities with risk assessment methodologies (following IMO guidelines), for supporting granting of exemptions in the transition phase.

7





4. Help national authorities with risk assessment methodologies (following IMO guidelines), for supporting granting of exemptions in the transition phase (< Sept. 2024).

8

Testing & piloting mobile treatment

▪ Work Package 4, Action 1

• Demonstrate / validate innovative PRF technologies for oiled and ballast water

• InvaSave (DAMEN)

9






10






11

BW quality compliance control

▪ Available tools and technologies

• B-QUA toolkit from LuminUltra

12






13






14

Environmental monitoring & risk management

▪ Data | Data collection• In-situ classical sampling• Sensor data

▪ Information | Processing & exploitation• Image processing (e.g. satellite imagery)• Data triangulation (e.g. digital terrain

models)

▪ Intelligence / Knowledge | Analysis and production• Modelling• Data interpretation• Machine learning / artificial intelligence

15

Environmental monitoring & risk management

▪ Data | Data collection• In-situ classical sampling• Sensor data

▪ Information | Processing & exploitation• Image processing (e.g. satellite imagery)• Data triangulation (e.g. digital terrain

models)

▪ Intelligence / Knowledge | Analysis and production• Modelling• Data interpretation• Machine learning / artificial intelligence

16

Environmental monitoring & risk management in Atlantic

▪ Systems integrating data, information and intelligence:

• Work done in MARPOCS project

• Port of Lisbon and ACTION Seaport

17

Marpocs Platform▪ Virtual Stations (Data collection vs. models)

• Fuerteventura airport (air temperature)

ACTION Seaport

19

ACTION Seaport Dynamic Map

20

High resolution forecasts for waves, currents and meteorology

ACTION Seaport Dashboards

21

ACTION SeaportWater simulations

22

On-demand simulations for oil and chemical spills, floating objects and water releases (e.g. ballast waters)






23






24

Risk assessment for national authorities: objectives

▪ Assess and minimize risk of spreading NIS from ballast waters:

• Map zones with higher and lower risk of NIS spreading / potential definition of exemption areas (A-4) for ballast water exchange

25


3 risk assessment methods outlined in the IMO Guidelines • Environmental matching risk assessment relies on comparing

environmental conditions between locations, • species’ biogeographical risk assessment compares the overlap

of native and non-indigenous species to evaluate environmental similarity and to identify high risk invaders, while

• species-specific risk assessment evaluates the distribution and characteristics of identified target species

▪ NO officially accepted methodology to perform Risk Assessment

▪ Various found in the literature▪ HELCOM/OSPAR JHP one of the most prominent methods

26

Risk assessment for national authorities: existing methodologies

▪ OSPAR-HELCOM Risk Assessment algorithm

27

▪ OSPAR-HELCOM - Web-based tool

28

Risk assessment for national authorities: existing methodologies

Ongoing work in IMO

▪ “Same Risk Area” (SRA) concept to be used for granting exemptions• "A Same Risk Area is an area delimited by the high probability of

natural dispersal and establishment of populations of target species." MEPC 71/4/24, Submitted by Belgium, Denmark, Singapore and INTERFERRY)

• Short-sea shipping

33

Same Risk Area = A body of water characterized by the an equal risk level from natural dispersal of target species

Ongoing work in IMO

▪ “Same Risk Area” (SRA) concept to be used for granting exemptions• Risk assessment: natural dispersal of target species by way of

hydrography or other natural mechanisms

• “The extent and directionality of natural dispersal of the target species should be modelled for the relevant water bodies. The area defined by the extent of connected locations of populations of target species may determine the extent of an SRA”

• Data needed: “the hydrodynamic, environmental and meteorological conditions of the area in question”.

• “low-risk if target species are already present in all the selected ports or locations or have a high probability, based on validated models, of establishing throughout the SRA by the process of natural dispersal within the agreed time window.”

34

How do we find Same Risk Areas?

▪ Species shortlist and characterization

• Find associated Pelagic Larvae Durations (PLD)

• From days to weeks

• After PLD period usually species settle down on seabed

• Find associated environmental tolerances

• Max and min salinities and temperatures

35


▪ Larval dispersal modelling

• Lagrangian particle / agent based models

• Emissions near the ports of interest

• Simulation period = larvae stage (PLD) (particles mortality = minimum PLD)

• If particles / agents encounter water salinities or temperatures out of their tolerance, particles are removed “killed”

• Multiple simulations under different hydrodynamic conditions – using 1 year variability (2019)

36


▪ Connectivity analysis/ SRA risk assessment• All simulations integrated for each emission

(donor port)

• If particles emitted from a donor port don’t reach (or have low frequency of approaching) the recipient ports before PLD => low connectivity => high risk of ballast water contamination

• If emitted particles frequently touch other port water before PLD => high connectivity => low risk of ballast water contamination

37

Ongoing Work

▪ 3 PLD’s considered: 15 days, 30 days, 45 days.

▪ Salinity and temperatures not yet included

▪ 6 Ports being analyzed in the Atlantic Area:• Port of Lisbon (PT)

• Port of Seville (ES)

• Port of Las Palmas (ES)

• Port of Madeira (PT)

• Port of Brest (FR)

• Port of Liverpool (UK)

38

Ongoing Work

▪ Hydrodynamic conditions, salinity and temperature: CMEMS Iberia-Biscay Irish (IBI) model (operated by Puertos del Estado)

39

Ongoing Work

40

Donor port: Port of Lisbon

Different seasons

Ongoing Work

▪ PLD = 15 days

41


January May

Ongoing Work

▪ PLD = 30 days

42


January May

Ongoing Work

▪ PLD = 45 days

43


January May

Ongoing Work

▪ For now:

• No natural connectivity between Lisbon and other Ports studied => Lisbon might generate invasive species in the other ports, unless temperature and salinity conditions aren’t tolerable by the species.

44

Take-away messages

▪ The main objectives will be to monitor, control and reduce the risk of environmental contamination from non-indigenous species:

• Direct treatment must be controlled at discharge

• The combination of data collection, data processing, data analysis and modelling procedures in ports receiving waters improve decision making in environmental monitoring and port risk management

• Untreated illegal discharges or identified invasive species can be evaluated under on-demand drift simulation tools, facilitating environmental monitoring operations

• BW exemptions and safe BW exchange areas must be duly identified according to OSPAR criteria. SRA can be a valuable tool for reduction of costs and administrative burden in short sea shipping

45Las Palmas, Jan 2019

Muchas gracias!

Rodrigo FernandesBentley Systems International Ltd. (Portugal)

[email protected]

risk assessment and environmental monitoring in port areas

Documents