UNNECESSARILY NEGLECTED IN PLANNING: ILLUSTRATION OF A PRACTICAL APPROACH TO IDENTIFY HUMAN DIMENSION IMPACTS OF MARINE OIL SPILLS

Fabienne Lord, Seth Tuler (), Thomas Webler and Kirstin Dow
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Fabienne Lord: Social and Environmental Research Institute, Greenfield, MA, United States
Seth Tuler: Social and Environmental Research Institute, Greenfield, MA, United States
Thomas Webler: Social and Environmental Research Institute, Greenfield, MA, United States
Kirstin Dow: Department of Geography, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, United States

Journal of Environmental Assessment Policy and Management (JEAPM), 2012, vol. 14, issue 02, 1-23

Abstract: Technological hazards research, including that on oil spills and their aftermath, is giving greater attention to human dimension impacts resulting from events and response. While oil spill contingency planners recognize the importance of human dimension impacts, little systematic attention is given to them in contingency plans. We introduce an approach to identifying human dimensions impacts using concepts from hazard and vulnerability assessment and apply it to theBouchard-120oil spill in Buzzards Bay, MA. Our assessment covers the spill, emergency response, clean-up, damage assessment, and mid-term recovery. This approach, while still exploratory, did demonstrate that the spill produced a range of positive and negative impacts on people and institutions and that these were mediated by vulnerabilities. We suggest ways in which the framework may help spill managers to learn from events and improve contingency planning by anticipating risks to social systems and identifying strategies to reduce impacts.

Keywords: Oil spill; human dimensions; social impacts; vulnerability; contingency planning; Bouchard-120 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
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DOI: 10.1142/S1464333212500123

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