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Oil Spill Response Atlas Policy & Management Guidelines

The National Plan to Combat Pollution of the Sea by Oil and Other Noxious and Hazardous Substances

The purpose of this paper is to outline the National Plan policy regarding the Oil Spill Response Atlas (OSRA) and Management Guidelines including the process and mechanisms of funding of the OSRA program and the obligations of State/NT Committees related to the OSRA program.

1 Introduction

The Oil Spill Resource Atlas (OSRA) Geographic Information System (GIS) is an essential tool in contingency planning and decision making during marine pollution incidents under the National Plan.

OSRA provides a means of identifying marine and coastal areas of sensitivity that could be impacted in the event of a pollution incident, as well as providing valuable resource and logistical information to Federal and State/NT combat authorities and industry.

Under the Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) section 12.i.f. the National Plan Operations Group and AMSA, as the National Plan manager, are committed to the on-going coordinated development and updating of the National OSRA to enhance the ability of States/NT to respond to marine oil and chemical spills in Australian waters.

The OSRA project commenced in 1998, utilising National Plan and Federal Government Natural Heritage Trust (NHT) funding. The two-year project fast tracked development of a national computerised marine pollution response decision support system tool. OSRA was officially launched by the Federal Environment Minister in May 2000 in Townsville. The OSRA GIS project is managed by AMSA in conjunction with the States/NT. Its main focus is primarily on fast tracking data collation, data capture, the digitisation and integration of the diverse environmental atlases into a uniform and consistent national GIS for use during maritime oil and chemical spill incidents. A set of OSRA GIS automation tools for spill response data entry and handling tools were developed during 2001-2002 and provided to National Plan stakeholders. This toolset also provides a means of importing and displaying the Oil Spill Trajectory Model (OSTM) output provided by AMSA during marine pollution events.

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2 Parties to OSRA Policy

The Parties to this Policy are principal stakeholders in the National Plan to Combat Pollution of the Sea by Oil and other Noxious and Hazardous Substances (National Plan). The program is a major national initiative to comply with Australia's obligations under the International Convention on Oil Pollution Preparedness, Response and Co-operation (OPRC90).

Each party desires to promote the OSRA program as an integral part of National Plan arrangements and by so doing minimise the risk of environmental damage in the event of marine oil and chemical spills

This Policy is in addition, and complementary, to the Inter-Governmental Agreement on the National Plan.

The Parties to this policy wish to record:

That OSRA is a valuable multipurpose database to governments and their agencies for state of environment reporting, landuse planning, resource utilisation, environmental impact assessment and decision making.
Their recognition of the need for on-going action to enhance and improve the individual States/NT oil spill response atlases.
Acknowledgement of the need to maintain and promote a national approach to the development of the OSRA program.
Their understanding and support of the need to cooperate with each other, as well as other State/Territory and Federal agencies, to the maximum extent practicable to ensure the efficient and timely delivery of the OSRA program components.
Acknowledgement of the need to minimise duplication and to maximise outcomes from within available financial and human resources.

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3 Funding Priority for National Plan OSRA Program

Primarily funding for OSRA is provided by AMSA from National Plan funds, however as mentioned in the above paragraph, States/NT should actively seek alternative sources of funding.

Requests for funding, submitted by the States/NT Marine Pollution Committees, will be reviewed on an annual basis (see Section 6) for the purpose of allocating National Plan funds to the States/NT. Distribution of funds is determined by the identification of high risk/high environmental sensitivity areas which have been identified in the National Plan Risk Assessment Review. Funding request proforma is at Appendix 1.

If other priority areas are identified by the States/NT Marine Pollution Committees for OSRA funding the rationale used for this assessment of priority must be submitted with the proposal.

An emphasis and priority should be placed on data gathering and the validation of that data in those high risk/high sensitivity areas of the coastline as defined in the DNV report (see Section 6).

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4 Financial and Administrative Obligations of Parties

The parties agree that in the development of program plans required by this policy the following principles will apply:

clearly defined objectives, outcomes, outputs, performance indicators and milestones.
objectives should be measurable, containing outcome oriented statements as to what the program aims to achieve.
performance indicators should be linked to objectives, and data collection requirements should be outlined.
reporting, monitoring, review and acquittal/auditing requirements should be explicitly outlined, and resources agreed to ensure that value for money can be assessed over time.
progress payments should be linked to the achievement of nominated milestones for each States/NT task.

Collaboration and sharing of OSRA data, equipment and resources between government agencies and industry is highly encouraged along with close liaison with spatial data information committees.

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5 Division of Responsibilities - OSRA Program

The State/NT Statutory Agency is responsible for the provision of data and on-going support for the States/NT OSRA programs. The main users and benefactors of the OSRA are State/NT agencies and other organisations involved in the management of marine pollution incidents in State/NT waters and coastal regions. For offshore regions and remote island territories, AMSA is responsible for the provision of OSRA data sets as well as National OSRA support. The States/NT role in managing the OSRA program include:

on-going updating* of OSRA data sets, and preservation* of existing OSRA data and information;
provision of strategic and operational management and control of States/NT OSRA modules and programs;
provision of coordination between State/NT development agencies and data custodian organisations involved with OSRA;
provision of adequate resources and funding to support the State/NT OSRA program during spill incidents and for regular updating and maintenance of data;
setting data acquisition priorities based on risk assessments and needs;
management and provision of OSRA outputs during marine pollution incidents including electronic and hardcopy map formats;
encourage the use of OSRA in the development of State/NT/regional/port/facility contingency plans and production of maps within those plans;
maximising opportunities for use and sharing of OSRA data sets and outputs;
pursuing alternative sources of funding within or with other States/NT;
providing AMSA with copies of all OSRA data sets and metadata information where this is allowed under agreement with suppliers;
reporting to AMSA on a regular basis concerning progress and finances associated with the OSRA program;
maintaining third party agreements with data custodians and other records as required;
training sufficient personnel within the States/NT to operate the individual OSRA systems on a day-to-day basis as well as during marine pollution incidents;
maintain software for State/NT users in accordance with the strategic directions and technical specifications; and
provide information/support to field response teams.

* Note: Updating, preservation and maintenance refers to the manipulation of existing OSRA datasets and includes the addition and deletion of spatial features, attribute changes, metadata and software versioning updates. If a datasets spatial features require maintenance of more than 60% then reimbursement may be sought from National Plan Funds.

AMSA's role in managing the National Plan OSRA program includes:

reimbursement of additional datasets for inclusion in OSRA based on identified high risk areas;
strategic direction, forward planning and support for the OSRA program in consultation with States/NT;
development of data dictionary and other guidance documentation as required;
review of data sets provided by States/NT and other organisations;
provide central repository for States/NT OSRA data and metadata sets where agreed with data providers;
undertake the efficient and effective delivery of the Commonwealth component of the OSRA program including management of national OSRA datasets;
assessment of States/NT program bids on an annual basis against national priorities;
distribution of OSRA funding subject to National Plan approved budget;
audit of OSRA finances;
undertake monitoring, evaluation and reporting on a national basis to the National Plan Operations Group on OSRA progress and finances;
control of OSRA assets and software licences;
ensure continual review and improvement to hardware, software, tools and technical specifications;
oversee the management of OSRA training;
promotion of awareness of OSRA GIS system;
supply of Oil Spill Trajectory Model (OSTM) outputs required by OSRA system;
provision of either adequate modelling expertise where required by the State/NT agency or access to the OSTM by persons of suitable expertise;
develop the annual budget for endorsement by the National Plan Management Committee;
provide reports to the National Plan Management Committee and the National Plan Operations Group on OSRA issues; and
conduct on-going research into delivery systems using the web between AMSA and the States/NT.

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6 Forward Planning of States/NT OSRA Programs

It is recognised by the National Plan that OSRA is not a static data/software system but a dynamic system that will require periodic review of the data sets and the incorporation of new surveys or updated data sets from source and custodian agencies.

State/NT Marine Pollution Committees shall provide AMSA with a three year plan of proposed data acquisition and compilation under the approved OSRA Specification. This forward plan shall include details of the on-going data updating and development program for OSRA, frequency of review of data validity and the agency responsible for the on-going review and updating based on the Preservation Plan prepared by WA at Appendix 2 or a detailed plan provided to AMSA by States/NT Priority for funding will be given to those high risk areas of the coastline and essential data sets required for response planning in maritime incidents (refer DNV Report: Risk Assessment of Pollution from Oil and Chemical Spills in Australian Waters).

The States/NT Marine Pollution Committees recommend that on-going State/NT or federal funding is secured to enable the OSRA to be updated and adequately preserved.

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7 Additional Information to support this Policy

Additional information to support this policy can be found in the following OSRA Management Guidelines [ PDF: 436KB]

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8 Appendices

Appendix 1 - OSRA Funding Proforma [ PDF: 16KB]
Appendix 2 - OSRA Data Preservation Plan [ PDF: 206KB]

Contact for inquiries

If you have any questions regarding this document or would like a hard copy of any of these documents please contact Environment Protection Response

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last updated: 19 October 2006