BOEM Announces Environmental Study Reports

The Environmental Studies Program (ESP) announces the availability of new findings from six research studies posted online to the Environmental Studies Program Information System (ESPIS) from July-September 2016. Two were managed by BOEM’s Alaska regional office, one by the Gulf of Mexico regional office, two by the Pacific regional office, and one broadly applicable national study that was managed by headquarters.

Four reports -- The Alaska Fault Tree Methodology report, the Pacific Power Cable Observation report, the Hawaiian Biogeographic Assessment report, and the Geophysical Surveys report -- contain links to other peer-reviewed articles or data citing BOEM-funded studies. The reports and associated technical summaries can be accessed through the enhanced ESPIS, which displays reports with geo-referencing tools, animation and other new features.

Topics covered include:

Two Alaska reports:

Updates to Fault Tree Methodology and Technology for Risk Analysis, Liberty Project; and Physical and Chemical Analyses of Crude and Refined Oils: Laboratory and Mesoscale Oil Weathering;

One Gulf of Mexico report:

Review of the Long-term Monitoring Program and the Associated Data of the Long-term Monitoring Program at the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary

Two Pacific reports:

Renewable Energy in situ Power Cable Observation;
Marine Biogeographic assessment of the Main Hawaiian Islands

One National report:

Characteristics of Sounds Emitted During High-Resolution Marine Geophysical Surveys.

BOEM’s ESP develops, funds, and manages rigorous scientific research to inform policy decisions regarding the development of energy and mineral resources on the OCS. The ESPIS makes all completed ESP reports available on-line as full electronic pdf documents, including images and graphics. Technical summaries of more than 1,700 BOEM-sponsored environmental research projects, as well as full pdf documents of over 3,500 research reports, are available for online full text search.

BOEM’s Environmental Studies Program page contains additional information on research opportunities and other aspects of the program.