Development of marine and coastal pollution training curriculum for master’s study level

Abstract

This paper discusses the development of a marine and coastal pollution training curriculum and learning materials for enhanced management level competence. Currently, the existing training programmes in this field embrace mostly specific subjects and target groups. For instance, short courses for rescue services, police and border guards as well as volunteers exist in the Baltic Sea region. Simultaneously, background studies brought out, that no comprehensive high level training curriculum covering this field exists in the countries of the region. The results of the analyses of pollution case reports demonstrated an urgent need for an extensive course programme, enabling the specialisation of marine and coastal pollution prevention, control and response. The curriculum was worked out on the basis of a Master's Programme of the Estonian Academy of Security Sciences, being available also for students of other countries in the region. The study and development work were carried out within the framework of the Interreg IV A EnSaCo "Environment and Safety Management Cooperation on Shoreline Oil Spill Response". This curriculum is designed to utilise the unified competence of several research and development institutions as well as civil services and foreign experts. The essential endeavours of the developed course are a proportional coverage of all the steps of pollution management, and a balanced approach to coastal and marine pollution subjects.