Risk and sensitivity assessments for marine areas (RSA) are made with the aim of achieving effectiveness of the Intervention Plan for Unexpected Pollution of the Sea (contingency plan) for the area of national jurisdiction of the Republic of Croatia at sea. The assessments are used in the process of setting priorities for the protection and recovery of marine environment, and defining the most adequate measures to prevent and contain sea pollution. According to the contingency plan, the responsibility of a competent county department is to produce a contingency plan for the area of its county. County contingency plan must include detailed risk and sensitivity assessments for areas within their competence. On the basis of detailed county assessments, the central government administration maritime authority prepares assessments of the risk and sensitivity of marine environments to pollution for the areas within the scope of the contingency plan, i.e. for the area of maritime jurisdiction of the Republic of Croatia at sea. Such assessments are presented in GIS under provisions of the contingency plan.

Analysis of relevant RSA-related provisions leads to the conclusion that contingency plan issues directly relate to the project and results of the project Places of Refuge for Ships in Distress, i.e. with the ADRIA GIS application being in operational use at the National Maritime Rescue Coordinating Centre. Following that conclusion, a research was carried out in order to achieve additional arguments and explanations of possible methods for resolving the issues of making RSA within the competence of coastal counties and the central government administration maritime authority. In this process, the principle of rationalization was followed in terms of examining the possibilities of upgrading the current ADRIA GIS application (already in use as decision-making support in urgent situations at sea) by adding new functions, as well as using and sharing the application with other contingency plan operators on regional and national levels. This paper presents the results of the above mentioned research, and proposes possible methods for making and visualizing RSA according to requirements of contingency plan provisions.