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The biological communities of such oil-impacted environments may be severely damaged thus leading to the importanceof classifying relatively less sensitive environments as highly vulnerable. During the accident in the Gulf ofMexico, in 2010, the beaches were strongly affected by the oil, with consequent drastic ecological and economicconsequences (Kostka et al., 2011). In 2002, an oil spill in Prestige (Spain) caused severe pollution in beaches exposedto waves (ESI 3). Six months after that accident, the macrofauna of affected beaches still presented lower organisms’abundance and disappearing of rare species, possibly due to the oil toxicity and the indirect effects ofcleaning procedures (Junoy et al., 2005).Figure 1. Environmental Vulnerability Map for a hypothetical oil spill in the anchoring area from the Port of Santos, São PauloCoast, Santos Basin, Brazil – winter scenario.ConclusionsThe use of indices of environmental vulnerability to oil is a more rigorous approach to plan and direct contingencyactions, based on the integration of environmental sensitivity to oil, modeling the oil dispersal and evaluation ofprobabilities for the oil plume to reach the coast. This approach also provides a fast and clear representation of vulnerableareas, allowing faster and more precise decision making and the protection of priority environments. The useof maps for summer and winter conditions also highlighted the need for considering different meteorological andoceanographic characteristics of the study area. Therefore, during the establishment of environmental vulnerability47