Preventive Methods for Coastal Protection: Towards the Use of Ocean Dynamics for Pollution Control

450 Pages·2013·31.545 MB·English

by  Tarmo Soomere (auth.), Tarmo Soomere, Ewald Quak (eds.)

Tarmo Soomere
Ewald Quak Editors
Preventive Methods
for Coastal
Protection
Towards the Use of Ocean Dynamics
for Pollution Control
Preventive Methods for Coastal Protection
Tarmo Soomere (cid:2) Ewald Quak
Editors
Preventive Methods
for Coastal
Protection
Towards the Use of Ocean Dynamics
for Pollution Control
Editors
TarmoSoomere EwaldQuak
WaveEngineeringLaboratory WaveEngineeringLaboratory
InstituteofCybernetics InstituteofCybernetics
atTallinnUniversityofTechnology atTallinnUniversityofTechnology
Tallinn,Estonia Tallinn,Estonia
and
EstonianAcademyofSciences
Tallinn,Estonia
ISBN978-3-319-00439-6 ISBN978-3-319-00440-2(eBook)
DOI10.1007/978-3-319-00440-2
SpringerChamHeidelbergNewYorkDordrechtLondon
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2013942501
Mathematics Subject Classification: 62P12, 62P30, 65C35, 65M06, 65M75, 76B15, 76F25, 86-08,
86A05,86A10,86A22,91B76
©SpringerInternationalPublishingSwitzerland2013
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“Though thisbemadness,
yetthereismethodin’t”
WilliamShakespeare
Foreword
Shippingasmeansoftransportationhasbeenamongthefirstandmostdirectways
forhumanstobenefitfromthemarineecosystemservices.Withtheincreasingvari-
ability of industrialized production on land and intensifying globalization of the
markets,thedirectenvironmentalpressurearisingfromshippingiseverincreasing.
Through history, the ways of utilizing the offshore maritime resources have diver-
sified. Therefore, prevention of harmful impacts from shipping and other offshore
activitieshasakeypositionintoday’spoliciesconcerningthemarineenvironment
andsustainability.
In spite of navigation made complicated by narrow straits, shallow waters,
labyrinthsofskerriesandislandsandwinterice,theBalticSeaisoneofthebusiest
shippingregionsoftheworld.Itisprojectedthatthetransportationofgoodsthrough
theBalticSeawilldoubleby2017.Oftheaverageof2,000shipsatseaeachday,
200aretankerscarryingoilorothersubstancesharmfulfortheenvironment.Dur-
ingthefirstdecadeofthe21stcenturythereweremorethan50shippingaccidents
causing pollution in the Baltic. In addition around 200 illegal spills are registered
eachyear(HELCOM2010).
This book summarizes results of BalticWay, one of sixteen projects funded by
BONUS(www.bonusportal.org),thejointBalticSearesearchanddevelopmentpro-
gramme, in 2009–2011. Its aim was to examine how to make shipping as well as
offshoreandcoastalengineeringsaferbyusingnewknowledgeonsemi-persistent
surfacecurrentsandtoavoidtransportofenvironmentallyharmfulspillstovulner-
ablecoastalareas.Theaimwastoproducesciencebasedadvicetodecisionmaking
inordertoreducetheenvironmentalrisk.
TheBalticWayresearchisexemplaryinlinkingscienceandpolicy.Itisfounded
on basic oceanographic research, using the modelling approach to make forecasts
ofmaterialflowsinahighlydynamichydrographicenvironmentthatspatiallyand
temporallyvariesacrossamultipleofscales.Atthesametime,theprojectresponds
to many objectives and goals of today’s policies in consideration of environment
and sustainability issues as well as to related demands on research, development
andinnovation.
vii
viii Foreword
Intoday’sreality,theemphasisofusingresearchasthebaseforpolicydecisions
isacross-cuttingissueandfrequentlyfeaturedinenvironmentalandsustainability
policy documents. The demand for strengthening the data and knowledge basis of
policymakingisrepeatedindocumentsrangingfromtheglobal,UNledinitiatives
(IOC/UNESCO2011),tomodernEUregulations(EC2008b)andtotheBalticSea
ActionPlan(HELCOM2007)oftheBalticMarineEnvironmentProtectionCom-
mission.TheissueisalsohighlightedasahorizontalactionintheoverarchingEU
StrategyfortheBalticSeaRegion(EC2008a).Allinall,thereisanurgentneedfor
targetedresearchfosteringsustainabledevelopment.
From the wider perspective of research, development and innovation policy,
the BalticWay project demonstrates the added value and power of multinational
cooperation. Only recently have the national and EU level research governance
structures been adapted so that they can efficiently support multinational coop-
eration. The cradle of the BONUS programme that provided funding for all na-
tionalities involved in the BalticWay and other BONUS projects that were im-
plemented in 2009–2011, lies in the concept of the European Research Area
(ec.europa.eu/research/era/index_en.htm).Itaimsataunifiedresearchareaopento
theworldbasedontheinternalmarket,inwhichresearchers,scientificknowledge
and technology move and circulate freely. The EU is fostering a better use of re-
searchforthebenefitofthesocietybyvariousfundinginstruments.Inordertolead
theeffortsofmarinesciencestowardsthisverygoal,theEUhasissueditsstrategy
forthemarineandmaritimeresearch(EC2008a).
Theaboveandmanyotherpoliciesareindicatinghowwehumansshouldlearn
moreaboutnatureinordertoadjustouractivitiessothatourcommonplanetremains
healthyforfuturegenerations.Yetbringingitallintopracticeneedsresearch.Also,
it is not enough any more to be an excellent researcher but there is also a need to
beconsciousaboutsocietalneedsandhowtheresultsfromresearchers’dedicated
workcanbeutilizedforthebenefitofthecitizens.
BalticWayputsintopracticethisnewwayofthinkingconcerningtheroleofsci-
ence in society and in an excellent way shows what the role and place of science
shouldbe.Itshowshowsciencethatseemsverytheoretical—fine-scalemodelling
ofsemi-persistentsurfacecurrents—iscapableofproducingresultsthatpotentially
have very important practical applications. The results and the management sug-
gestions made by the project team are now under real-life proofing and feasibility
validationandthiswaymostlikelyontheirwaytocontributingtoactualsolutions
thatareneededforthegoodofthefutureoftheBalticSea.
ExecutiveDirector,BONUS KaisaKononen
ScienceforabetterfutureoftheBalticSearegion
Helsinki,Finland
Foreword ix
References
HELCOM(2010)MaritimeactivitiesintheBalticSea—anintegratedthematicassessmentonmar-
itimeactivitiesandresponsetotheseapollutionintheBalticSearegion.BalticSeaenviron-
mentproceedingsNo123
IOC/UNESCO,IMO,FAO,UNDP(2011)Ablueprintforoceanandcoastalsustainability.Paris,
IOC/UNESCO
European Commission (2008a, September 3) A European strategy for marine and maritime re-
search. A coherent European Research Area framework in support of a sustainable use of
oceansandseas.COM(2008)534final.RetrievedDecember13,2012,fromeur-lex.europa.eu/
LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2008:0534:FIN:EN:PDF
EuropeanCommission(2008b)Directive2008/56/ECoftheEuropeanParliamentandoftheCoun-
cil of 17 June 2008 establishing a framework for community action in the field of marine
environmentalpolicy
HELCOM (2007) The BalticSea Action Plan.A new environmental strategy for the Baltic Sea
region.Helsinki,BalticMarineEnvironmentProtectionCommission
Preface
Theaimofthisbookistopresentfornon-specialistresearchersandexpertsacom-
prehensiveoverviewofthebackground,keyideas,basicmethods,implementation
details and a selection of solutions offered by the novel technology for the opti-
mizationofthelocationofdangerousoffshoreactivitiesintermsofenvironmental
criteriathatwasdevelopedintheframeworkoftheBONUScooperation.
Thefirstpartofthecollectionintroducesthebasicprinciplesofoceanmodelling
and depicts the long way from the generic principles to the practical modelling of
oilspillsandpropagationofotheradverseimpacts.Thesecondpartfocusesonthe
techniquesforsolvingtheinverseproblemofquantificationofoffshoreareaswith
respect to their ability to serve as a source of environmental danger to vulnerable
regions.
Thebookfirstpresentsanoverviewoftheessentialfeaturesofthehydrography,
the functioning and the key properties of the dynamics of circulation and currents
ofthemajorimplementationarea—theBalticSeaandtheGulfofFinland.Theba-
sicprinciplesofEulerianmodellingof3Dcurrentsareintroducedintermsofboth
genericconceptsandspecificimplementationforthecirculationmodelling.Thisis
complementedbyanoverviewofthedifferencesincirculationmodelimplementa-
tions for other potential target areas (such as the Mediterranean or the Black Sea)
andofthelimitationsofcirculationmodelswhenitcomestooperationalmodelling
of adverse impacts, e.g., oil spills, and specific features of operational and/or oil
spillmodelling.
Thebasicelementofthetechnology—Lagrangiantrajectoriesofadverseimpacts
in the marine environment—is presented mostly from the viewpoint of their cal-
culation from Eulerian information about marine currents. The relevant modelling
efforts are complemented with results from the very first long-term experiments
withLagrangiandriftersinthesurfaceandsubsurfacelayersoftheBalticSeaand
the Gulf of Finland. Statistical analysis of properties of large pools of data about
Lagrangian transport is applied for approximately solving the inverse problem of
pollutionpropagation.Thisapproachisafeasiblewayforasystematicquantifica-
tion of the offshore areas in terms of the potential of current-induced transport of
adverseimpacts(releasedintheseareas)tovulnerabledomains.Themapscharac-
xi
xii Preface
terizingthispotentialareusedfortheconstructionofoptimalfairwaysandthebest
locationsofpotentiallydangerousactivities.Finally,applicationsofthedeveloped
technologyforsolvingcertainproblemsofmaritimespatialplanningarediscussed
togetherwithnewpossibilitiesforexpressmethodsfortestingthevulnerabilityof
aparticularseaarea,theapplicabilityoftheentireapproachanddirectestimatesof
thepotentialbenefitfromthenewfairwaydesigns.
Thechaptersarewritteninatutorialstyle;theyaremostlyself-containedandun-
derstandablefornon-specialistresearchersandstudents.Thegoalwastohighlight
all key steps, methods,models and data sets necessary to be combined in order to
producethepracticallyusabletechnologyand/ordecisionsupportsystemforapar-
ticularseadomain.Thebookwasdesignednotonlyasadescriptionandamanualof
theparticulartechnologybutalsoasaroadmaphighlightingcomplicatedtechnical
issuesofoceanmodellingforpracticalpurposesthatarefrequentlyhiddendeepin
modelmanuals.
To ensure the scientific quality of the contributions, each chapter was carefully
reviewed by two to four independent experts, with at least one from outside the
BalticSeasciencecommunity.Specialthanksgotoallauthorsandreferees,without
whomthemakingofthisbookwouldnothavebeenpossible.Finally,financialand
mentalsupportbytheBONUSinitiativeduringallphasesofthepreparationofthis
bookiswarmlyacknowledged.
Tallinn,Estonia TarmoSoomere
March2013 EwaldQuak