Aspects for Priority Protection Assessment of Abiotic Components to Oil Exposure

Abstract

The analytical review was prepared to assess coefficients of priority protection the features of special significance for mapping the vulnerability of marine coastal zones from oil pollution. Nowadays, this issue is a rather complex scientific problem, because there is no consensus on how to evaluate, calculate and how to present them. In most cases, such coefficients are given by one or more parameters in relative units (points, ranks). As a rationale, only criteria are given, taking into account which it is determined how much one object is more important for protection than another, and specific values are based mainly on the subjective expert’s opinion and are therefore ambiguous. At the same time, the availability of maps showing the environmental vulnerability of marine coastal zones is very important in case of emergency oil spills, as it facilitates the indicating of priorities for cleaning, especially at the initial stages of spill response and minimizes potential damage to the natural and man-made environment. This paper proposes approaches, where the basis for obtaining quantitative standardizable indicators of priority protection the features of special significance presented with minimal subjectivity and maximum generality.