The easing of the monopoly for oil and natural gas exploration, coupled with the creation of the National Agency for Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP) in 1997, greatly boosted exploration and production activities on the Brazilian continental shelf, significantly increasing the risk of environmental accidents caused by oil spills, which affect other activities and uses at sea and on land, and require immediate decision-making protection priorities.
With the approval of Law No. 9,966 (Oil Law) in 2000, the environmental environmental agency was assigned the responsibility to identify, locate and define the limits of areas ecologically sensitive to oil pollution and other harmful or dangerous substances, in waters under national jurisdiction.
In this context, the Environmental Sensitivity Charts for Oil Spills - SAO Charters - subsidize contingency planning at the national, regional and local scales, serving as subsidies for the National Contingency Plan for Incidents of Oil Pollution in Waters under National Jurisdiction ( Decree 8,127 / 2013), through the Area Plans and reaching the Individual Emergency Plans of projects located in the mapped oil basins. At ODS charters should address all levels: from large leaks in remote oceanic areas (strategic scale), medium-sized (tactical / regional scale) spills and local magnitude incidents (operational scale).
The mapping of the Brazilian maritime basins was based on the publication of the "Technical Specifications and Standards for Elaboration of Environmental Sensitivity Charts for Oil Spills" in 2002. Since then, the Ministry of the Environment (MMA) basins of Ceará-Potiguar, Santos, Espírito Santo and Southern Bahia Basins were completed.
Thus the Atlas and its digital base are intended to provide the interested public - government institutions, civil society, industry, academia, etc. - with official information that can be taken as a starting point for the preparation of studies and public policies, aimed at protection of the environment, through the elaboration / operationalization of contingency planning, coastal zone occupation planning, definition of critical areas for protection, and other actions.
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