Preparation of scientific collaboration project with partners from Russia, NATO and other countries to be implemented according to NATO-Russia Committee programme on „Science for peace and security“

Relevance of the problem:

One of the key tasks, mentioned among the most important in Baltic Sea Region Strategy is to make the Baltic Sea Region a Safe and Secure Place. The Action Plan of the mentioned strategy defines following priority fields: to become a leading region in maritime safety and security; to reinforce maritime accident response capacity protection from major emergencies. Transport by sea is expected to increase significantly in the coming years in the Baltic Sea and with that comes a higher risk for accidents. Strategic location of the Baltic Sea is convenient for the development of major oil transportation routes, specifically from Russia, which carries out the oil mining in the Baltic Sea. The main oil terminals of Lithuania are operating in Klaipeda and Būtingė. Their activities pose a hazard to the environment. Seeking to reduce the risk of extreme situations and their possible impact on Baltic Sea ecosystems the need of mutual cooperation among Lithuania and Russia, based on existing scientific knowledge, is of major importance.

Project objective:

Development of response operations for the better responding possibilities to oil spills in order to conserve the Baltic Sea environment and strengthen the cooperation among countries.

Project goals:

• Improvement of oil spills observation methods and expansion of remote methods application possibilities.
• Improvement of the modelling methods of oil spills drifting in the open sea, nearshore, estuaries and lagoons.
• Preparation of the Baltic Sea oil spills sensitivity maps based on natural, social and economic factors.
• Analysis of dispersants impact on the Baltic Sea ecosystem and evaluation of their possible application in South-Eastern Baltics
• Analysis of new investigation methods and their applicability for the evaluation of oil spills and environmental monitoring in high risk zones (including the improvement of existing monitoring programmes in terminals).
• Analysis of oil transportation and mining activities and their possible impact on the environment.