Vulnerability Identity (V.ID) for the Algarve coastal municipalities subjected to coastal oil spill accidents

Abstract

Portugal has a 942 km long coastline and approximately 1.72 million km2 of territorial waters (about 18 times the area of the country), including territorial sea and Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), representing the 11th largest area in the world. Within the EU, Portugal is the country with the largest area of territorial waters, excluding the overseas territories of France and the United Kingdom. The Portuguese EEZ is crossed daily by approximately 200 vessels larger than 500 tons, of which 40 are tankers, in addition to about 61000 ships of all types that cross annually the Straits of Gibraltar. This traffic is hazardous, representing a high economic, environmental and social risk to the region. In this thesis, a multi-indicator index for costal oil spill vulnerability, the V.ID (Vulnerability Identity) is proposed. Unlike traditional single indicator indexes, V.ID considers different vectors of oil spill vulnerability to create an "Identity Card" of each Unit in the Study Domain, associating a graphical image to it, providing easy and immediate reading. The vectors considered include various socio-economic and environmental statistical indicators associated with each of the municipalities. These vectors integrate information regarding the length and type of coast of each municipality, natural areas and Natura 2000 areas, population, importance of hotel business and fishing on the economy of each municipality. The explicit visualization of the different vectors will allow the analysis of each independent aspect of vulnerability, easily masked when aggregated in a single index. It is a key step to expand the results of previous studies concerning the risk of oil spills on the Algarve coast. This model is easily scalable and can be used to compare the vulnerabilities of municipalities face to a region, regions with a country or countries face a continent. It is intended that V.ID can be used by entities related to urban and regional planning in the preparation of Land Management Plans to be applied in coastal areas, authorities related to the Risk Cartography production and institutions with responsibilities in the response to oil spills in order to plan their emergency response. The methodology proposed is fully generic and scalable, allowing its application in other regions of the world.