Line 02 · Environment and risk
Environmental studies and risk management
Identify impacts, hazards, vulnerabilities and recovery conditions to support environmental management, reduce risk and guide management, monitoring, restoration, offset and adaptation measures.
This service brings together environmental impact assessments, management plans, water quality and pollution studies, characterisation of aquatic and riparian ecosystems, inventories of abstractions and discharges, and support for instruments such as POMCA and PORH.
It also integrates hazard, vulnerability and risk studies for flooding, flash floods and mass movements; zoning for POT, PBOT and EOT; soil and terrain analysis; and criteria for early warning systems. The approach articulates physical, environmental, territorial and social evidence in order to propose verifiable measures.
Documented use case
Modelling an environmental incident to guide the recovery of a coastal lagoon
Following an incident that produced an unplanned discharge into a coastal lagoon on the Colombian Caribbean, Tarulla developed a comprehensive assessment to establish the extent of the event, estimate its effects on the ecosystem and guide recovery and offset measures. The study integrated historical information and water quality monitoring, ecological characterisation, fishery resource analysis and mangrove assessment.
To represent the circulation and dispersion of the contaminant load we built a hydrodynamic and water quality model in Delft3D, incorporating tides, wind, hydraulic connections and a grid of approximately 20 by 20 metres. A reference condition was compared with a critical scenario to analyse dissolved oxygen, biochemical and chemical oxygen demand and suspended solids.
The simulations identified a low-renewal zone where organic matter could remain for longer and projected a progressive decrease of the load over the following two months. The assessment was completed with an adaptation of the EDANA-C methodology: land covers and ecosystem services were delimited, environmental damages and needs were estimated, and a plan was formulated with monitoring, restoration, conservation and network-strengthening actions.
Estimated area of direct influence
Model grid resolution
Maximum extent of the plume
Projected return to reference
The Tarulla method
Five steps, from question to recommendation
We pin down the obligation, the impact, the incident or the risk scenario that must be assessed.
We define the baseline, the components, the scale, the scenarios and the applicable regulatory or planning criteria.
We compile background information and obtain primary data through monitoring, sampling, inventories, field traverses and territorial engagement.
We integrate modelling, environmental analysis, hazard and vulnerability assessment and mapping to explain effects and priorities.
We formulate management, reduction, restoration, offset, monitoring or preparedness measures and accompany their technical review.
Specialities involved
Technical capabilities of this line
- Impact assessment and environmental management plans
- Water quality and contaminant modelling
- Aquatic, riparian and coastal ecosystems
- Restoration, offsetting and environmental monitoring
- Hazard, vulnerability and disaster risk
- Flooding, flash floods and mass movements
- Soils, terrain and applied geotechnics
- Territorial planning and early warning systems
The other two service lines