Dispersants Information | Oil Spill Response Atlas | Oil Spill Trajectory Model | Chemical Spill Trajectory Model | Oiled Wildlife

Oil Spill Response Atlas (OSRA) Administrative Guidelines

Introduction
Background
Parties to the OSRA Policy
Division of Responsibilities - OSRA Program
Alternative and Additional Sources of Funding for OSRA Activities
Funding Priority for National Plan OSRA Program
Financial and Administrative Obligations of Parties
Organisations Providing OSRA Services
Reimbursement Procedure
Assets Acquired under OSRA Program
Forward Planning of States/NT OSRA Programs
Information/Data Ownership
Reporting and Auditing Requirements
Exchange of Information
Conflict Resolution
OSRA Disclaimer
Acknowledgment and Publication of OSRA Information
Additional Information to support this Policy
Appendices

Contact for inquiries

1. Introduction

This outlines the National Plan to Combat Pollution of the Sea by Oil and other Noxious and Hazardous Substances (National Plan) policy regarding the administration of the Oil Spill Response Atlas (OSRA).

It includes the conditions and requirements for the funding and reporting of OSRA-related activities, mechanisms of the OSRA program and the obligations of State/NT Committees in relation to the OSRA program.

2. Background

The 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 critical logistical information to Federal and State/NT combat authorities and industry during such events.

OSRA is a dynamic system requiring periodic data sets review, as well as the incorporation of new surveys or updated data sets from various source and custodian agencies. It is essential that the information in OSRA is maintained up-to-date so that a clear and precise prediction of oil or chemical spill environmental impact is achieved.

Under the Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) section 12.i.f., the National Plan Operations Group (NPOG) and AMSA (as the National Plan manager) are committed to “maintain support systems under the National Plan, including fixed wing aerial dispersant spraying, risk assessment, the Oil Spill Response Atlas, and the Oil Spill Trajectory Model”. This includes 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 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.

3. Parties to the OSRA Policy

The Parties to this Policy are the principal stakeholders in the 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 should endeavour to promote the OSRA program as an integral part of National Plan arrangements and therefore 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.

4. 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, as well as the management of marine pollution incidents in State/NT waters and coastal regions.

The States/NT role in managing the OSRA program include:

provide on-going update* of OSRA data sets, and preservation* of existing OSRA data and information;
provide strategic and operational management and control of States/NT OSRA modules and programs;
provide coordination between State/NT development agencies and data custodian organisations involved with OSRA;
provide adequate resources and funding to support the State/NT OSRA program during spill incidents and for regular updating and maintenance of data;
set data acquisition priorities based on risk assessments and needs;
manage and provide OSRA outputs during marine pollution incidents, including electronic and/or 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;
maximise opportunities for use and sharing of OSRA data sets and outputs;
pursue alternative sources of funding within or with other States/NT;
provide AMSA with copies of all OSRA data sets and metadata information where this is allowed under agreement with suppliers;
report to AMSA on a regular basis concerning progress and finances associated with the OSRA program;
maintain third party agreements with data custodians and other records as required;
train 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.

For offshore regions and remote island territories, AMSA is the Statutory Agency responsible for the provision of National OSRA data sets as well as National OSRA support.

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

provide reimbursement of additional datasets for inclusion into OSRA based on identified high risk areas;
provide strategic direction, forward planning and support for the OSRA program in consultation with States/NT;
develop and maintain the OSRA data dictionary and other guidance documentation as required;
review of data sets provided by States/NT and other organisations;
provide a 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;
assess States/NT program bids on an annual basis against national priorities;
distribute OSRA funding subject to National Plan approved budget;
undertake 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 and delivery of OSRA training when required;
promote awareness and benefits of the OSRA GIS;
supply Oil Spill Trajectory Model (OSTM) outputs to the OSRA when necessary;
provide 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.

5. Alternative and Additional Sources of Funding for OSRA Activities

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. Primarily, funding for OSRA is provided by AMSA from National Plan funds through a reimbursement scheme to the limit of agreed budgets for each State/NT. However, States/NT Marine Pollution Committees should actively seek alternative sources of funding, like for instance local coastal management authorities or Federal Government grants and initiatives, such as the Coasts and Clean Seas Program.

State/NT Marine Pollution Committees should also pursue all relevant agencies to contribute information to the development of the States/NT OSRA. It is recognised that some States/NT OSRA agencies have already accessed other sources of funding through extensive collaboration with the oil and gas industry, in order to advance their OSRA programs.

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. Where this has not occurred, a short term strategy of mutual data exchange or "selling" access to these entities could be followed, as a means of providing additional funding or data sets for the OSRA program.

6. Funding Priority for National Plan OSRA Program

Priority for funding will be allocated to those areas of coastline considered of high risk as per the 2011 DNV Report Assessment of the Risk of Pollution from Marine Spills in Australian Ports and Waters, and to essential data sets required for response planning in maritime incidents. Therefore, emphasis and priority should be placed on data gathering and validation of data in those high risk/high sensitivity areas of coastline.

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 together with the proposal.

7. Financial and Administrative Obligations of Parties

Requests for funding submitted by the States/NT Marine Pollution Committees will be reviewed on an annual basis (see Section 7) during the third quarter of each Financial Year for the purpose of allocating National Plan funds to the States/NT. These requests should be submitted using the OSRA Task Request Proforma (Appendix 1). It is preferable if both the original signed paper copy and the electronic version are submitted.

Each Task Request should address the following:

data collection tasks, referenced to the relevant section of the OSRA Technical Specification Guidelines (e.g. “2.1 Shorelines”)
clearly defined objectives that are measurable and contain outcome-oriented statements of what the program aims to achieve;
outcomes, outputs, and performance indicators linked to objectives and data collection requirements to be achieved at each milestones; progress payments may be linked to the achievement of nominated milestones for each States/NT task.
project timeline and cost estimate against each subtask/milestone;

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.

However, if no task requests are planned to be submitted for the following financial year, this should also be notified to AMSA together with reasons why.

8. Organisations Providing OSRA Services

National Plan funds can be used for OSRA development services provided by business units within relevant State/NT Agencies or by external contractors and consultants.

Some partial pre-payments to State/NT Agencies for OSRA activities may be agreed upon by AMSA on a case by case basis.

State/NT Marine Pollution Committees have a responsibility to ensure that any service providers, whether internal or external, are selected on the basis of technical merit, GIS experience and cost benefit. Open tendering for external service providers is recommended to ensure this process is fair and equitable.

State/NT OSRA development agencies are encouraged to maximise the use of short term external contractors if extra resources are necessary for fast tracking individual modules of the program.

Contracts or agreements may be required to ensure a commercial relationship is maintained. States/NT should also be guided by their internal agency’s financial or tendering requirements and policies.

9. Reimbursement Procedure

At the end of each Financial Year, reimbursement up to the amount agreed to by AMSA will only be made following submission of the following:

A covering letter that includes:
- the period of the activity covered by the accompanying invoice (at least three monthly);
- name and code of the individual OSRA task(s) completed;
- the total amount covered by the invoice;
- a statement that all monies forwarded have been expended or committed for expenditure in accordance with the respective State/NT agreed budgets;
Completed OSRA Dataset Checklist (Appendix 2)
a fully detailed tax invoice with all GST payments identified;
a copy of the original OSRA Task Request proforma containing all the details of the program task, including:
- name and code of the individual OSRA task(s) completed;
- the contact details of the organisation undertaking the development of the OSRA data sets;
- details of the OSRA activity (e.g. region covered, data fields collected, etc.);
- description or details of any materials or services covered by the funding;
satisfactory completion and supply of metadata to AMSA;
digital copies of the data set(s) supplied to AMSA either on disk or by email and in compliance with the OSRA Technical Specification.

In addition, State/NT Marine Pollution Committee Chairs must provide a signed letter stating that this expenditure has been made or committed to in accordance with the current national specification for the OSRA program.

10. Assets Acquired under OSRA Program

OSRA program funding is primarily for the direct acquisition of priority data sets. Funding will not be provided for the purchase of computer hardware, for instance. However, low cost software and data sets are not regarded as an asset and may be considered.

11. Forward Planning of States/NT OSRA Programs

The accuracy and currency of the OSRA data is only as good as the stored data and the processes that are in place to preserve the data. For this purpose, each State/NT should establish and have in place an OSRA Preservation Plan to ensure that their OSRA data’s currency is maintained up-to-date and new information is able to be introduced as it is collected by other agencies.

State/NT Marine Pollution Committees are to provide AMSA with a one to three-year Preservation Plan, which will include proposed data acquisition and compilation procedures under the approved OSRA Technical Specification Guidelines.

This forward plan should essentially include:

details of the on-going data updating and development program for OSRA;
frequency of review of data validity;
the agency responsible for the on-going review and updating.

To facilitate the development of your State/NT OSRA Preservation Plan that is to be delivered to AMSA, an OSRA Preservation Plan Template is provided in Appendix 3. The template contains instructions on each of the sections. However, if some sections do not apply or no information is available, then this should be stated under each of the corresponding headings. Additional sections can also be added, if relevant.

The OSRA WA Preservation Plan in Appendix 4 shows an example of an OSRA Preservation Plan.

12. Information/Data Ownership

The ownership of data sets and rights to use and/or distribute OSRA information is a very complex issue and is the responsibility of each State/NT agency. The following general guidelines should be followed:

Data sets owned or acquired from other agencies and under commercial arrangements for the OSRA program, must be identified as such and details of ownership registered in the metadata. This is essential so that data sets are not illegally circulated to third parties, which may jeopardise inter-agency data exchange relationships and goodwill.
Ownership rights to the OSRA data sets must be investigated and resolved by each State/NT Marine Pollution Committee. Any release or marketing of OSRA information/data either as a result of shared funding or fully funded under the National Plan, must be considered and authorised by AMSA prior to any commercial arrangement being entered into.
If the OSRA dataset in question has been developed under joint funding with other agencies, then permission of all funding agencies and AMSA should be sought prior to any distribution to other parties.

State/NT Marine Pollution Committee Chairs should strongly encourage data custodians and agencies to place their non-strategic data sets and related metadata onto their respective State/Territory Spatial Data Directory nodes within the Australian Spatial Data Directory (ASDD) facility, for access by the wider community.

A duplicate master copy of all metadata, data sets and imagery for the OSRA program will reside in AMSA for National Plan pollution response, and from time to time OSRA data may be used for aviation Search and Rescue planning activities and other exercises. The data will not be distributed to any other party without the specific written instructions of the owner/custodian.

13. Reporting and Auditing Requirements

Each of the State/NT Marine Pollution Committee Chairs must closely monitor the progress of OSRA activities and provide adequate reporting of tasks as and when required by AMSA.

Reporting in the form of an OSRA Quarterly Status Report (Appendix 5) must therefore be provided to AMSA by each of the State/NT Marine Pollution Committee Chairs at three monthly intervals commencing at the end of each financial year. This should essentially state:

progress of each of the OSRA task against the identified milestones of the program;
financial status against budget and forecast of individual OSRA tasks;
any actual or expected delays in reaching the predetermined milestones;
identified actions to bring the program back on schedule;
an assessment of the success of the program including achievements against objectives and performance indicators;
publications resulting from the program (if any), such as maps, photographic records, etc.

Any financial and technical audits of States/NT OSRA program development agencies, sub contractors and other service providers will be carried out in accordance with States/NT practices to determine compliance against the OSRA Technical Specifications Guidelines and OSRA Data Management Guidelines. Audits will also verify the physical existence of listed data sets and/or maps at the locations agreed with the States/NT at the required currency, coverage and accuracy. Officers of AMSA and/or its auditors or contractors shall be allowed reasonable access to the GIS information and data sets for the OSRA program.

To ensure conformance to the OSRA Technical Specification Guidelines and the achievement of deadlines and desired outcomes, payments may be withheld unless fully compliant with these.

At the end of the project and prior to the final payment, Project Coordinators will be required to supply State/NT OSRA Coordinators and AMSA with written Technical and Financial Audit Reports, together with a CD containing the project data.

14. Exchange of Information

Each party agrees to promptly comply with any reasonable request from the other party to supply information relating to the management or administration of OSRA programs covered by this Policy.

15. Conflict Resolution

In the event that any dispute arises under this Policy, the parties will settle it by direct negotiation using their best endeavours, and acting in a spirit of cooperation. Alternatively, the matter can be referred to the National Plan Operations Group (NPOG) or National Plan Management Committee as required.

The parties will notify and consult each other on matters that come to their attention and that may improve the operation of this Policy.

16. OSRA Disclaimer

It is recommended that the following disclaimer be incorporated whenever the OSRA data or information is used:

"[insert name of State/NT agency] has made all reasonable efforts to ensure that the Oil Spill Response Atlas (OSRA) developed for the [State/NT] is fit for purpose, however there may be inadvertent or occasional errors and for this reason, the atlas is subject to ongoing modification and updating. The atlas overlays, maps and associated data provided on the basis of the best available information sources to [State/NT agency] and may be subject to third party agreements.

[State/NT agency] and its personnel or advisers assume no responsibility and make no warranty or representations as to the currency, accuracy or reliability of the data or information.

The use or mention of any specialist software or equipment in the OSRA program does not represent endorsement of these products by the [State/NT agency]."

17. Acknowledgment and Publication of OSRA Information

All computer outputs, documentation, articles, newsletters, hardcopy maps, posters and other publications utilising the information and data from the atlases should acknowledge the National Plan to Combat Pollution of the Sea by Oil and Other Noxious and Hazardous Substances, where appropriate, as sponsors of the program. Electronic logos can be provided to States/NT agencies for this purpose.

Release or marketing of OSRA information/data or toolset scripts either as a result of shared funding or fully funded under the National Plan must be considered and authorised by AMSA prior to any commercial arrangement being entered into.

18. Additional Information to support this Policy

Additional information to support this policy can be found in the OSRA Data Management Guidelines.

These Guidelines have been provided to all States/NT for the purpose of consistent management of information under this program. These are to be used for the development of data capture/data production procedures, data manipulation and validation, and to support the transfer of data to AMSA. It contains information on specifications, guidelines and standards of data that are required in order to meet the quality of OSRA data expected by AMSA.

19. Appendices

Appendix 1 – OSRA Task Request Proforma [ DOC: 316Kb]

Appendix 2 – OSRA Dataset Checklist [ PDF: 25Kb]

Appendix 3 – OSRA Data Preservation Plan Template [ DOC: 555Kb]

Appendix 4 – OSRA WA Data Preservation Plan [ PDF: 206KB]

Appendix 5 – OSRA Quarterly Status Report [ XLS: 19Kb]

Contact for inquiries

If you have any questions regarding these guidelines or would like a hard copy of any of the documents mentioned, please contact Environment Protection Response.


Contact Us - Site Help - Payments (Levies and Fees) - Media - Publications - Forms