The roles of networks, learning, and general resilience in oil spills

The occurrence of oil spills is a global problem that requires a complex set of scientists, engineers, governments, corporations, and communities to address. The objective of this special feature is to understand the dynamic process of adaptation in the face of economic and ecological vulnerabilities as related to major oil spills, such as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the United States in 2010 and the Hebei Spirit oil spill in Korea in 2007. The special feature originated from a symposium of the same title, Vulnerability and Adaptation to Oil Spills, at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement for Science in 2012. We tackle new issues ranging from citizen science, corporate social responsibility, community adaptation, regulatory change, and an oil spill impact framework, all of which have seldom been addressed in past studies of oil spill consequences.