OREANDA-NEWS. December 17, 2013. With the guidance of the Estonian Marine Institute of University of Tartu, Estonian, Finnish and Swedish scientists have created a new dynamic work device for decreasing possible environment measures resulting from maritime accidents.

SmartResponse web application promotes taking informed decisions and assessing risks related to the management of offshore and coastal waters pollution control operations.

"The volume of maritime oil transport on the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Finland is increasing. In order to avoid maritime accidents related to oil spills and minimising the resulting potential environment damages, oil control resources must be used optimally," said Robert Aps, the Head of Marine Systems Department of the Estonian Marine Institute of the UT about the need to realise the MIMIC (minimising risks of maritime oil transport by holistic safety strategies) project.

During the execution of the project, the scientists of the Estonian Marine Institute of UT, Tallinn University of Technology, Tallinn University, Aalto University and Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute have moved from static risk assessment approach towards a new dynamic handling of risk assessment and management. "This has resulted in an operative SmartResponse web application for the dynamic assessment of environmental risks from oil spills and for raising the level of being informed when making oil control decisions," said Aps.

In case of a ship accident, SmartResponse web application allows first to model the way the ship has run aground and the impact and then assess the amount of oil leaking out as the result of the accident. After that the oil spill movement on the sea is modelled by using the Seatrack web application. The next step is to dynamically assess the risks for the ecological values, coastal area and human-related fields of activities, including fishing industry, tourism, maritime transport, etc. by using the modules created in SmartResponse and OILRISK project. In cooperation with Kotka Maritime Research Centre, the legal acts and research reports related to the safety of oil transport are made available with the help of the application.

SmartResponse application has been created in the framework of MIMIC project of the European Union Central Baltic INTERREG IV A Programme. The partners of the project are: the University of Tartu, Kotka Maritime Research Centre, Centre of Maritime Studies of the University of Turku, Kymenlaakso Universities of Applied Sciences, Aalto University, University of Helsinki, Tallinn University of Technology, Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute and Finnish Environment Institute.

MIMIC project is financed by the European Regional Development Fund Central Baltic INTERREG IV A Programme 2007–2013, national institutions and scientific research institutions