Determination of refuge places for oil tankers in emergencies in the Chinese Bohai Sea

This study considered three major emergency scenarios for oil tankers: explosion and fire on board, oil leaking from the ship into the sea, and sinking of the ship. A total of 25 main harbors and 51 main anchorages along the Bohai Sea were considered as potential places of refuge (PoR) to which oil tankers could be towed in an emergency. Three categories of indicators including 18 criteria were constructed given a total of 76 potential PoR. For visualization and further evaluation, a GIS-based score mapping system was built using normalization and rectilinear grids covering the whole domain for each of the criteria. All criteria were weighted equally and were then overlapped to present an overview of the ranking of all PoR in the Bohai Sea under each scenario. The least ranked five PoR for each scenario included in the final findings should be avoided by decision makers when they face a decision on where to tow an oil tanker for sheltering in emergency conditions. This paper provides a quantitative assessment method for determining PoR to which oil tankers should be towed in emergency conditions and suggests appropriate PoR with high rankings for oil tankers in the Chinese Bohai Sea.