A decision-making model for oil spill response at the tactical level

The present paper addresses the tactical level of the oilspill response decision-making process, that determines the actions required to respond to a specific spill. In the broader area of the incident, a number of response facilities may exist. These facilities are equipped with known quantities and types of oil response equipment. The decision-maker needs to determine from which facilities to dispatch units to the spill site and, moreover, the types and quantities of the units to be dispatched. The objective is to respond to the specific spill in an optimal way; one approach is to respond optimally on a cost basis. The above tactical problem is modeled as an optimisation problem by applying the linear programming theory. An illustrative application of the model is finally presented.