Safety in Extreme Environments - Call for Papers: Special Issue on “Environment, Health, and Safety (EHS) Management during Natural Resources Development in Extreme Environments”

A significant portion of human activities in extreme environments are intended to develop natural resources. Due to the increasing global energy demand, this portion keeps increasing. Operators are keen to learn how to progress their operations safely and environmental friendly; while regulators are eager to establish proper regulations, standards, and guidelines to ensure safety and environmental issues are well managed in locations with harsh environments, which are often characterized by high or excessive exposure to cold or hot climate, pressure, flammable or explosive materials, corrosive chemicals, etc. Industrial activities in extreme environments present significant technical and logistical challenges in the engineering design, construction, and operation of onshore and offshore infrastructure and facilities. These locations (e.g., the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions, the deserts, and underground sites) are usually remote and with limited resources available for emergency responses. Lack of knowledge and data adds more challenge and uncertainty to the determination of whether engineering specifications are sufficiently defined to ensure the safe and environmental-friendly operations in harsh conditions. Further complications arise as engineering schemes fall increasingly under technological, economic, environmental, and human constraints. Intensive and extensive research is needed to provide sufficient knowledge for safety assurance and environmental protection in extreme environments.

      For the aforementioned reasons, the special issue aims to consolidate the literature on safety and environmental issues related to natural resources development in extreme environments and provide an overview of the state-of-art of these issues and potential solutions. This special issue invites original papers dealing with but not limited to the following topics:

1. Process safety in extreme environments;
2. Occupational safety in extreme environments;
3. Human factor challenges in extremes environments;
4. Corrosion prevention and control in extreme environments;
5. Innovation in data collection and remote monitoring;
6. Risk assessment with scarce information;
7. New materials for application in extreme environments;
8. Environmental management in extreme environments;
9. Pollution control and mitigation in extreme environments;
10. Modeling of oil spills in cold waters.

Submission Guidelines 

Original submissions of high-quality contributions are expected. Please submit your manuscript as an ‘Original Research Article’ via https://www.springer.com/42797 (this opens in a new tab) and select the special issue “Safety Assurance and Environmental Protection-SAEP” in the ‘Additional Information’ section during the submission process. 

The format of all submissions should follow the specifications described in “Guide for Authors” of the Journal of Safety in Extreme Environments shown in https://www.springer.com/earth+sciences+and+geography/engineering+geology/journal/42797 (this opens in a new tab). Papers will be refereed according to the procedures and standards of the journal.

Each paper will undergo a thorough evaluation by at least two reviewers. The authors will have some time to incorporate the comments of the reviewers and submit a revised version of their papers, which will be evaluated again by the reviewers to make a final decision.

Editors

Ming Yang, Nazarbayev University, Kazakhstan, ming.yang@nu.edu.kz (this opens in a new tab)

Faisal Khan, Memorial University of Newfoundland,
fikhan@mun.ca (this opens in a new tab)

Timeline and Process:

Open call for paper: Oct 1st, 2019

Deadline for full paper submissions: March 31, 2021

Papers will go through the online submission system and the rigorous peer-review process of the Journal of Safety in Extreme Environments.