An analysis of environmental incidents for a national Antarctic program
Research stations in Antarctica are concentrated on scarce ice-free habitats. Operating these stations in the harsh Antarctic climate provides many challenges, including the need to handle bulk fuel and cargo increasing the risk of environmental incidents. We examined 195 reports of environmental in...
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2018.02.024 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29453119 http://ecite.utas.edu.au/124501 |
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ftunivtasecite:oai:ecite.utas.edu.au:124501 2023-05-15T13:49:03+02:00 An analysis of environmental incidents for a national Antarctic program Brooks, ST Jabour, J Sharman, AJ Bergstrom, DM 2018 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2018.02.024 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29453119 http://ecite.utas.edu.au/124501 en eng Academic Press Ltd Elsevier Science Ltd http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2018.02.024 Brooks, ST and Jabour, J and Sharman, AJ and Bergstrom, DM, An analysis of environmental incidents for a national Antarctic program, Journal of Environmental Management, 212 pp. 340-348. ISSN 0301-4797 (2018) [Refereed Article] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29453119 http://ecite.utas.edu.au/124501 Environmental Sciences Environmental Science and Management Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Environmental Knowledge Refereed Article PeerReviewed 2018 ftunivtasecite https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2018.02.024 2019-12-13T22:23:08Z Research stations in Antarctica are concentrated on scarce ice-free habitats. Operating these stations in the harsh Antarctic climate provides many challenges, including the need to handle bulk fuel and cargo increasing the risk of environmental incidents. We examined 195 reports of environmental incidents from the Australian Antarctic Program, spanning six years, to investigate the impacts and pathways of contemporary environmental incidents. Fuel and chemical spills were most common, followed by biosecurity incursions. The majority of reports were assessed as having insignificant actual impacts. Either the incidents were small, or active, rapid response and mitigation procedures minimised impact. During the period only one spill report (4000 l) was assessed as a high impact. This is despite over 13 million litres of diesel utilised. The majority of incidents occurred within the existing station footprints. The pathways leading to the incidents varied, with technical causes predominately leading to spills, and procedural failures leading to biosecurity incursions. The large number of reports with inconsequential impacts suggest an effective environmental management system with a good culture of reporting environmental incidents. Our findings suggest that the key to continual improvement in an ongoing environmental management system is to learn from incidences and take action to prevent them occurring again, with an end-goal of minimising the residual risk as much as possible. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Australian Antarctic Program eCite UTAS (University of Tasmania) Antarctic Journal of Environmental Management 212 340 348 |
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Open Polar |
collection |
eCite UTAS (University of Tasmania) |
op_collection_id |
ftunivtasecite |
language |
English |
topic |
Environmental Sciences Environmental Science and Management Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Environmental Knowledge |
spellingShingle |
Environmental Sciences Environmental Science and Management Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Environmental Knowledge Brooks, ST Jabour, J Sharman, AJ Bergstrom, DM An analysis of environmental incidents for a national Antarctic program |
topic_facet |
Environmental Sciences Environmental Science and Management Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Environmental Knowledge |
description |
Research stations in Antarctica are concentrated on scarce ice-free habitats. Operating these stations in the harsh Antarctic climate provides many challenges, including the need to handle bulk fuel and cargo increasing the risk of environmental incidents. We examined 195 reports of environmental incidents from the Australian Antarctic Program, spanning six years, to investigate the impacts and pathways of contemporary environmental incidents. Fuel and chemical spills were most common, followed by biosecurity incursions. The majority of reports were assessed as having insignificant actual impacts. Either the incidents were small, or active, rapid response and mitigation procedures minimised impact. During the period only one spill report (4000 l) was assessed as a high impact. This is despite over 13 million litres of diesel utilised. The majority of incidents occurred within the existing station footprints. The pathways leading to the incidents varied, with technical causes predominately leading to spills, and procedural failures leading to biosecurity incursions. The large number of reports with inconsequential impacts suggest an effective environmental management system with a good culture of reporting environmental incidents. Our findings suggest that the key to continual improvement in an ongoing environmental management system is to learn from incidences and take action to prevent them occurring again, with an end-goal of minimising the residual risk as much as possible. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Brooks, ST Jabour, J Sharman, AJ Bergstrom, DM |
author_facet |
Brooks, ST Jabour, J Sharman, AJ Bergstrom, DM |
author_sort |
Brooks, ST |
title |
An analysis of environmental incidents for a national Antarctic program |
title_short |
An analysis of environmental incidents for a national Antarctic program |
title_full |
An analysis of environmental incidents for a national Antarctic program |
title_fullStr |
An analysis of environmental incidents for a national Antarctic program |
title_full_unstemmed |
An analysis of environmental incidents for a national Antarctic program |
title_sort |
analysis of environmental incidents for a national antarctic program |
publisher |
Academic Press Ltd Elsevier Science Ltd |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2018.02.024 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29453119 http://ecite.utas.edu.au/124501 |
geographic |
Antarctic |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Australian Antarctic Program |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Australian Antarctic Program |
op_relation |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2018.02.024 Brooks, ST and Jabour, J and Sharman, AJ and Bergstrom, DM, An analysis of environmental incidents for a national Antarctic program, Journal of Environmental Management, 212 pp. 340-348. ISSN 0301-4797 (2018) [Refereed Article] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29453119 http://ecite.utas.edu.au/124501 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2018.02.024 |
container_title |
Journal of Environmental Management |
container_volume |
212 |
container_start_page |
340 |
op_container_end_page |
348 |
_version_ |
1766250746565623808 |