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Development of Ecological Sensitivity Index (ESI) of Mangrove Ecosystem to Oil Spill

      Mangrove is a coastal ecosystem that is vulnerable when it is exposed to oil spills. Cleaning up oil spills in mangrove ecosystems is very difficult and highly costly. Ecological sensitivity index (ESI) of mangrove ecosystem is an alternative tool to control oil spill by protecting highly sensitive areas from oil spill.  The objectives of this research were to define key variables of  the ecological sensitivity index (ESI) of mangrove ecosystem to oil spills, developing formulations of ecological sensitivity index (ESI) of mangrove ecosystems to oil spill, and assessing the formulations of ecological sensitivity index (ESI) mangrove ecosystem to oil spills in Cilacap Regency and Indramayu Regency. 

     The steps of this research included defining the  key variables of ecological sensitivity index (ESI) of mangrove ecosystems, defining ESI formulations, and assessing ESI formulations. Formulation of the index variable was conducted by literature studies, expert surveys, cluster analysis, and statistical tests. Secondary data (research reports and journals) and primary data (surveys in Cilacap Regency and Indramayu Regency) were collected. 

    This research resulted in eight key variables of ecological sensitivity index (ESI) of mangrove ecosystem, namely the existence of nursery habitat (ENH), the kind of flora mangrove (KFM), age of mangrove flora (AMF), length of tide inundation (LTI), the density of mangrove trees (DMT), the number of mangrove species (NMS), the existence of protected mangrove flora (EPM), and the presence of protected fauna (EPF). ESI formulation of mangrove ecosystems was formed based on key variables and weighting based on the value of the ranking as follows: 

ESI me=0.18ENH+0.12KFM+0.15 AFM+0.13LTI+0.09DMT+0.09NMS 

+0.10EPM+0.13EPF

      Ecological sensitivity index (ESI) of mangrove ecosystem had the criteria of the best index  including: (1) variable index is able to represent the characteristics of mangrove ecosystems (environment, flora, fauna, and ecological functions); (2) This index has the ability to assess the ecological sensitivity of mangrove ecosystem well and by using secondary data this index is able to distinguish the level of sensitivity of mangrove ecosystem in four categories, namely, low sensitive, moderately sensitive, sensitive and very sensitive; and (3) the index formulation is simple and easy to use. The capacity of this index is that it is able to assess various characteristics of mangrove ecosystem, so this index can be applied in any location of mangrove in Indonesia. 

      Results also showed that the distribution of ecological sensitivity index (ESI) of mangrove ecosystem in Indramayu Regency was categorized as sensitive and that in Cilacap Regency was categorized as sensitive and very sensitive.  High level of ecological sensitivity of mangrove ecosystems in Cilacap Regency and Indramayu Regency indicated the need of efforts to prevent oil spills in order to avoid high ecological and economic losses.   

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