SEAM will utilise
Formal Safety and Environmental
Assessment (FSEA) methodology as a rational structure for
achieving its objectives. It will also make use of Environmental
Impact Assessment (EIA) to assist in the scientific and technical
evaluation.
The measures that
will be proposed will meet acceptable risk levels of shipping operations taking
into account the views of the main stakeholders (shipowners, shipmanagers, shippers,
ports, terminals, regulatory bodies), and they will be assessed for economic
viability.
SEAM address five
principal areas of investigation:
- FSEA of the
maritime transport system relative to ballast water management, the use of
anti-fouling paints and air pollution from ships
- Safety and Environmental
Measures of existing preventive and consequence reducing measures (mitigation)
- Risk Analysis
Evaluation Tool
- Life cycle engineering
of the design
- New safety and
environmental measures including management, procedures and operational tools
verified by case studies and economic feasibility.
The
main expected technical achievements
of the project, based on the SEAM-FSEA approach, are as follows:
- Technical and
operational solutions for the treatment of ballast water
- Recommendations
for ballast water management plans
- Safety assessment
of ballast water transfer
- Inventory and
assessment of existing anti-fouling paints, substitutes, any other technical
solution
- Global assessment
of environmentally-friendly cost-efficient alternatives to the use of anti-fouling
paints
- Economic impact
assessment and cost-benefit analysis of the use of low-sulphur marine fuels
- Reliable methods
to measure emissions and identification of acceptability levels
- Proposals for
standards for marine fuel quality
- Operational
benefits to shipping companies, transport and environmental authorities and
organisations, classification societies, transport and infrastructure planners.
SEAM consists of
- 1
horizontal users-group which will bring together all stakeholders
- 7
Work Packages
:
- Management,
- Identification
of the hazards of the 3 issues of concern ( ballast water management,
use of anti-fouling paints and quality of fuel and emissions from ships)
and collection of data;
- Assessment
of risks incurred by these 3 issues and their resultant impact on
environment,
- Determination
of an agreed level of acceptable risk,
- Case
studies for a selected variety of likely shipping environments and
evaluation of the environmental risk management measures,
- Providing
a sound cost/benefit analysis for the alternative mitigation measures
and procedures
- Dissemination
and Exploitation.