Risk Assessment as a Decision Supporting Tool in Ballast Water Management
نویسندگان
چکیده
After almost two decades of intensified research, regulatory and political activities focussed on the prevention of harmful organisms and pathogen transfers around the world, in 2004 the International Convention on the Management of Ships’ Ballast Water and Sediments (BWM Convention) was adopted to provide for a common and globally uniform ballast water management (BWM) approach. Recognising that ports are located in different geographical conditions, have different maritime traffic patterns, and that the ballast waters being discharged in these ports may pose different levels of threat, the BWM Convention incorporated also risk assessment (RA) as a BWM decision supporting tool. The authors recognised that the RA in BWM was by now addressed at different national, regional and global levels, and different RA approaches have been developed. However a generic RA to support the BWM Convention has not yet been developed. In this paper the main methods and approaches of the RA in BWM are presented, and recommendations are given how RA may support maritime authorities‟ decisions in their efforts to implement the BWM Convention.
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