MANAGEMENT OF INFORMATION FLOW IN COMPLEX SHORELINE CLEAN-UP OPERATIONS THOUGH A COMMON SYSTEM FOR SITUATION OVERVIEW AND REPORTING IN THE “M/S SERVER” Incident

ABSTRACT Clean-up operations following coastal oil spills may become complex with respect to handling the information necessary to keep all parts of the organisation updated on the situation and in line with recent developments. After the “M/S Server” struck aground off the island of Fedje, Norway on Friday 12th. of January 2007, and initially spilling 290 tonnes of bunker oil, the weather conditions caused the oil to break up into many small slicks and polluting a high number of shoreline segments. The weather conditions continued to prevent the safe survey of several polluted positions, further complicating the task of creating a full overview of the situation. The 201 positions of the polluted segments involved 13 municipalities, 2 counties and 3 different Regional Pollution Combat Groups as well as the overall management by the Norwegian Coastal Authorities. Surveying of segments, prioritisation, and follow-up of progress involves both practical operational and scientific judgements, and creates paper...