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Shoreline Assessment Job Aid
NOAA's Shoreline Assessment Manual (download available at right) outlines methods you can use to plan and conduct shoreline assessment after an oil spill. You can incorporate your assessment results into your decision-making process for shoreline cleanup. This job aid is a supplement to the manual. It contains visual examples of many of the terms you would use during shoreline assessments.
Introduction
When oil contaminates shoreline habitats, responders must survey the affected areas to determine how to respond appropriately.
Though you may have laid the groundwork for shoreline cleanup during planning stages by developing general approvals or decision tools for choosing cleanup methods, you must base your specific cleanup recommendations on field data that you and your colleagues collect by conducting a shoreline assessment. To perform an assessment, you survey the affected shoreline, segment by segment, to collect information about the shoreline habitats, type and degree of shoreline contamination, and spill-specific physical processes.
A shoreline assessment program is:
- a systematic approach that uses standard terminology to collect data on shoreline oiling conditions and support decision-making for shoreline cleanup;
- flexible in terms of the scale of the survey and detail of the data sets collected;
- multi-agency, including trained representatives from all interested parties who have authority to make decisions.
At a spill, it is important to "calibrate" your shoreline assessment by having all team members visit a shoreline segment together and agree on how the oiling descriptors will be applied for that specific spill when using the Shoreline Assessment Manual. Use this job aid as a tool for calibrating your shoreline assessment and promoting consistency among teams.
Beach Profiles
Here are profiles of typical gravel and sand beaches. Beach features are labeled with the terms you'd use to perform a shoreline assessment.
Percent Coverage Charts
The charts below are aids for estimating the percent oil coverage on a section of oiled shoreline you are observing. On both charts, black areas represent oil. Because it's difficult to precisely estimate oil coverage, you'll probably find it sufficient to identify the percent coverage in terms of the four ranges shown below: "Sporadic," "Patchy," "Broken," or "Continuous." Use the top chart, below, to estimate percent coverage in areas where oil deposits have formed as bands; use the lower chart for discrete oil deposits such as tarballs.
Chart source: Owens, E.H., and G.A. Sergy. Field Guide to the Documentation and Description of Oiled Shorelines. Environment Canada, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. March 1994. ISBN 0-662-22048-X.
Photographs in this job aid and its related photo galleries were contributed by Miles O. Hayes and Jacqueline Michel of Research Planning, Inc.
Photo Galleries
These links will take you to our Photo Gallery section, where you'll find photo collections showing examples in the following categories. Use your browser's Back button to return, or bookmark this page before leaving. |
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