OSPAR has recognized that a coordinated chemical and biological effects monitoring programme is essential for identifying the nature and extent of environmental impacts. A guidance document for the design and conduct of monitoring programmes has been published. However, not all the tools and methods needed for the undertaking of such monitoring (e.g. water column impacts) have yet been fully developed or validated.
The training course will focus on approaches, techniques and tools for environmental impact assessment related to offshore E&P discharges. Current practice and new developments of field monitoring and risk assessment will be examined. In addition to describing more traditional physical, chemical and biological field monitoring routines, this will include findings from laboratory and field experiments, with special emphasize on the use of biomarkers, and the development of and implementation of biomarkers into practical field monitoring. Several tools for risk assessment, such as the current status and further development of computation models (DREAM, PROTEUS, CHARM etc.) and environmental management systems will be addressed. An integrated framework for environmental impact assessment will be presented.
Objectives
The course aims to provide a complete overview of current practice and new developments in the field of environmental risk assessment and field effects monitoring related to the offshore E&P industry. It will help understand the applications of different tools for impact assessment of offshore E&P discharges.
Who should attend?
The course is intended for anyone who needs to base decisions on sound judgment of environmental impacts. Policy makers who need to evaluate the environmental performance of E&P industries in the light of regulations as well as HS&E managers who want to optimize the environmental performance of their activity. For the course no specific technical background is required.
The course organisers
Organization of the course is in hands of TNO (NL) and IRIS-Akvamiljø (NO) (formerly known as RF-Akvamiljø). TNO will be represented by Chris Karman and Mathijs Smit. Both were involved the development of risk assessment techniques since the early 90s. They played a crucial role in the development and application of risk assessment models like CHARM, EIF, DREAM and PROTEUS. They were a member of several advisory teams for OSPAR concerning produced water management.
IRIS will be represented by Steinar Sanni and Lars Petter Myhre.
IRIS-Akvamiljø is and has been a major player in developing biological field monitoring methods, particularly biomarkers, in addition to having a role in the more traditional field monitoring. The interface with and development of risk assessment tools (particularly DREAM) including field validation has also been a major task for IRIS-Akvamiljø during the last 5-10 years. For further information mathijs.smit@tno.nl