Valutazione della vulnerabilità agli idrocarburi di un'area costiera del Lazio settentrionale tramite l'applicazione dell'Indice di Sensibilità Ambientale ESI
Author(s)
Giovacchini, Monica
Date Issued
June 17, 2016
Type
Doctoral Thesis
Abstract
Coastal pollution is one of the main threats to marine biodiversity and habitat loss (Fluharty, 1994; Lundin and Lindean, 1993; Sebens, 1994; Suchanek, 1994) and one of the activities that constitute the greatest risk to the environment marine is oil transportation resources in the sea.
The impact of spills of hydrocarbons in the marine ecosystem depends on many integrating factors: amount of spilled substances, the incident mode, distance and coast morphology, weather conditions and type of impacted habitats. Generally a consistent spill produces acute effects in the short-term and chronic long-term effects on birds and marine organisms that comes in contact with the floating oily layers. When slicks reached the coast, the damage also hit the sedentary organisms such as algae, plants and animals (API, 2001; ITOPF, www.itopf.com).
The ESI (Environmental Sensitivity Index), was developed in 1979 by the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) following the disaster of Ixtoc exploratory in the Gulf of Mexico, to organize emergency strategies against oil spills. It represents the most most wide methodology used all over the world, for the determination of the sensitivity of the coastline to oil spills. However, in the Mediterranean sea, due to the heterogeneous morphology and because of the wide diversity of ecosystems, it is currently been little used (Gugliermetti et al., 2007). There are rare cases of application for the Italian coasts: the work of Cumo et al., (2008) and that of Cinquepalmi et al., (1998), on the Venetian Lagoon. The ESI maps, which are one of the method's results, reports three general types of information: the classification of the coastline, classified according to a scale on the sensitivity, the natural persistence of hydrocarbons and ease of cleaning; biological resources, or habitats and animals susceptible to pollution caused by oil and its derivatives; areas and to use human resources, that are areas, places or specific assets that have an economic value, historical and cultural partner because of their use.
The study set out to assess the relative vulnerability of the Northern Lazio region (Italy) in the event of oil spills, georeferencing and advance by identifying the position of the most sensitive resources and quantifying, where possible, resulting in species loss due pollution. All this has been achieved through the creation of alphanumeric and cartographic database covering: the exposure to waves and wave energy, the slope of the shoreline, the coastal morphology, particle size and lithological substrates, habitats and biological productivity and
sensitivity, biological resources (such as marine plants such as Posidonia oceanica, sea birds, marine and freshwater fishes, biocenosis and benthic marine invertebrates, marine mammals, amphibians and reptiles) and natural resources, economic and recreational and historical and socio-cultural. It was then made an atlas of thematic maps obtained by developing the ESI Environmental Sensitivity Index for the study area. The Atlas is a technical support tool to implement quickly and targeted management strategies of any event and subsequent recovery of the area.
Chosen study area is characterized by different marine ecosystems and threatened ecological goods (Posidonia oceanica seagrasses, river mouths, SIC and ZPS), historical and cultural heritage by the high value and numerous services and resources for human use (agriculture, fishing, urban spaces, aquaculture, recreational boating, tourist accommodation). All these features make this area an example of optimal zone for the development of Environmental Sensitivity Index.
In conclusion, validation of the ESI method led to distinguish within the study area, three risk categories (minor, intermediate, high): morphological heterogeneity, the remarkable diversity of ecosystems and the unique importance of the archaeological sites, historical and landscape along the stretch of coastline studied, makes the achievements a methodological basis applicable to a large part of the coasts of the Italian peninsula.
Additional information
Dottorato di ricerca in Ecologia e gestione delle risorse biologiche
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