Ground Truthing Resources at Risk in Indonesia

Resources at risk (RAR) are identified environmental, archaeo-cultural, or socio-economic sensitive sites, within (or close to) an incident area that could potentially be impacted by a release. Examples of these include breeding areas, wetlands, shipwrecks, recreational beaches, and commercial fishing areas. RAR provides the basis for decisions relating to developing and refining environmental response strategies and for identifying important social, cultural and economic aspects and are a key part of an Oil Spill Response Plan. Initial information about such resources or sites are gathered remotely from company Environmental Process requirements, environmental impact assessments (EIAs), environmental sensitivity index maps (ESI maps), government resources, local universities and non-government organizations (NGOs). This information is then validated and expanded upon by data QA/QC, and direct observation using a combination of boats, helicopter and ground transportation with local experts. Ground truthing is important to validate and document information such as local utilization of resources, habitat quality, and to identify locations where boom could be deployed, access points, outfalls, staging areas etc. through video, photo and mapping, that might otherwise be missed. RAR can help businesses focus on improved spill response capabilities by identifying credible oil spill scenarios to understand spill risk, generate an ESI Map with identified resources (ecological and socioeconomic) and lastly to create and exercise tactical plans for the protection and response to those resources.