Environmental Problems in Ice-Covered Waters
Authors: Kostilainen v. 
Published: October 2008

Industrial operations in ice-infested environments must take into account environmental factors or constraints that are not applicable in more temperate climates. This paper outlines the background and provides an overview of the role of the environmental factors to the malfunction or faults in ocean engineering systems of the Arctic and Subarctic. The necessity of careful reliability and safety analysis of arctic offshore systems as an integrated whole isemphasized. Some practical solutions to the environmental problems in the Baltic Sea are discussed.

INTRODUCTION

Basic information on environmental factors acts as a foundation for development work on arctic structures and its planning as well as arctic logistic problem solving. Environmental protection requires the same kind of data on the environment. Thus, it is apparent that the more detailed the information we have on the environment, the better we will be able to solve the technical problems of the arctic regions and overcome the difficulties involved in environmental protection. Unfortunately in most practical cases we lack this information which must be compensated for by systematic research and careful reliability and safety analysis and estimation of risk.

The environmental and economic consequences of accidents or faults in the offshore systems of the Arctic are severe. This has resulted in that offshore industry and authorities have actively sought the best available technology for arctic spill response. Extensive research and development has been undertaken, numerous field tests and equipment modifications of various oil recovery and disposal systems have been accomplished. Less efforts have been put to considering safety and reliability aspects beforehand in the planning stage of theoperations. Environmental problems of the Arctic and Subarctic can be solved by carefullyanalyzing the coherent system of industrial operations.

OUTLINING OF THE SYSTEM

A simplified block diagram of a general safety system of an offshore operation in the Arctic is presented in Fig. 1. The diagram has been simplified by examining in more detail only the consequences of the possibility of an oil spill. From this diagram we can make the following important findings:The environment embraces all the other elements of the diagram. As was pointed out in the introduction, in most cases the environmental data is scarce. This increases the uncertainty in the functioning of all the elements of the system.The human element is in one way or another an effective factor in all the other elements of the system. Human actions can be predictable or random. The randomness of human actions causes problems especially in random environmental conditions.Discovering the causes of the malfunction or fault in the operational elements is the main object of safety and reliability engineering. The most effective means to avoid accidents during the system operation is to eliminate or reduce hazards and danger during design anddevelopment.The possibility of an oil spill is not the only consequence. Unfortunately, public opinion and authorities have paid attention to the non controlled oil spill element.