3. ECOLOGICAL RISK ASSESSMENT METHODOLOGY 3.1 PROJECT GOALS AND OBJECTIVES One of the goals of this project was to demonstrate the benefits of risk assessments to making informed environmental decisions, and to describe the methodology used to conduct a risk assessment. In the process, we compared the methodological approaches of the US and Russian scientists in carrying out a risk assessment, expecting that the underlying scientific logic would be very similar, though the institutional setting might differ. It was our hope that viewing each other's risk assessment methodology applied to a common case study would provide a new perspective, allowing both sides an opportunity to make advances in the theory and practice of conducting and using risk assessments. Determining ecological risk is a complex process. For instance, the ecological risk from an oil spill is not necessarily proportional to the total spill volume. A spill in the Komi region of Russia in November 1994 was almost five times the total volume of the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Prince William Sound, Alaska. But the ecological damage from the Komi spill was less severe because the oil was naturally contained at Komi. Risk assessments produced using GIS environmental databases can quantify the risks of such spills before they occur so that response planning is optimized, and more accurately quantify the possible consequences of oil spills—including geological, hydrological, and meteorological factors—than environmental impact studies alone. Besides improving emergency planning, risk assessments will also enable managers to balance economic and environmental factors during oil exploration, production, and decommission activities.
