Electrical resistivity imaging for long-term autonomous monitoring of hydrocarbon degradation: Lessons from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill

Geophysics ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 80 (1) ◽  
pp. B1-B11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Heenan ◽  
Lee D. Slater ◽  
Dimitrios Ntarlagiannis ◽  
Estella A. Atekwana ◽  
Babu Z. Fathepure ◽  
...  

Conceptual models for the geophysical responses associated with hydrocarbon degradation suggest that the long-term evolution of an oil plume will result in a more conductive anomaly than the initial contamination. In response to the Deepwater Horizon (DH) oil spill into the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, an autonomous resistivity monitoring system was deployed on Grand Terre, Louisiana, in an attempt to monitor natural degradation processes in hydrocarbon-impacted beach sediments of this island. A 48-electrode surface array with a 0.5-m spacing was installed to obtain twice-daily images of the resistivity structure of the shallow subsurface impacted by oil. Over the course of approximately 18 months, we observed a progressive decrease in the resistivity of the DH spill-impacted region. Detailed analysis of pixel/point resistivity variation within the imaged area showed that long-term decreases in resistivity were largely associated with the DH-impacted sediments. A microbial diversity survey revealed the presence of hydrocarbon-degrading organisms throughout the test site. However, hydrocarbon degradation activity was much higher in the DH-impacted locations compared to nonimpacted locations, suggesting the presence of active hydrocarbon degraders, supporting biodegradation processes. The results of this long-term monitoring experiment suggested that resistivity might be used to noninvasively monitor the long-term degradation of crude oil spills.

2011 ◽  
Vol 15 (12) ◽  
pp. 3639-3649 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. S. Hayworth ◽  
T. P. Clement ◽  
J. F. Valentine

Abstract. From mid June 2010 to early August 2010, the white sandy beaches along Alabama's Gulf coast were inundated with crude oil discharged from the Deepwater Horizon well. The long-term consequences of this environmental catastrophe are still unfolding. Although BP has attempted to clean up some of these beaches, there still exist many unanswered questions regarding the physical, chemical, and ecological state of the oil contaminated beach system. In this paper, we present our understanding of what is known and known to be unknown with regard to the current state of Alabama's beaches in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Motivated by our observations of the evolving distribution of oil in Alabama's beaches and BP's clean-up activities, we offer our thoughts on the lessons learned from this oil spill disaster.


2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (7) ◽  
pp. 295-299 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen K. White ◽  
Shelby L. Lyons ◽  
Sarah J. Harrison ◽  
David M. Findley ◽  
Yina Liu ◽  
...  

1997 ◽  
Vol 1997 (1) ◽  
pp. 1029-1030 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gordon A. Robilliard ◽  
Paul D. Boehm ◽  
Michael J. Amman

ABSTRACT The purpose of the guidance manual is to identify for first responders the basic methods for collecting, preserving, and documenting essential ephemeral samples and data that are needed for NRDA and general environmental assessment in oil spills. The manual assumes that first responders will have limited specialized experience, expertise, and equipment in environmental sampling. Ephemeral data and samples include (a) source oil and freshly spilled oil, (b) the spatial distribution and amount of oil on the water surface and on shorelines, (c) unoiled beach sediments, (d) oil in the water column in unoiled and oiled areas, and (e) selected unoiled intertidal organisms. The manual provides guidance on where, when, and how to collect each type of sample and data. The manual emphasizes the importance of documenting samples and data so that they can be used later to evaluate the environmental impacts of the spilled oil.


2003 ◽  
Vol 2003 (1) ◽  
pp. 1035-1037 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Kirwan John Short

ABSTRACT On the 18th January 2000 a broken pipeline owned and operated by the oil company Petrobras spilt some 1300 tonne of bunker fuel into Guanabara Bay, Rio de Janeiro. The wildlife response was divided amongst 2 operational strategies and included – avian fauna and cetaceans. This paper deals with the cetacean response only. Cetaceans are generally not considered as an important feature of an oil spill response. Contingency planning for cetaceans in oil spills is now becoming an important element for preparedness for some countries. The cetacean response in Guanabara Bay specifically targeted a pod of about 70 members of the species Sotalia fluviatilis, a small dolphin that inhabits the bay. The response included the development of a plan that included a response system, a monitoring program and action plans. The response system detailed the mechanism for the plan to work and adopted the incident control management system. The monitoring program related to the study of any short term or long term deleterious effects resulting from the spill and consisted of basic spatial, temporal and behavioural studies. Action plans were developed specific to the character of Guanabara Bay and included the rescue and rehabilitation strategies necessary to respond to oil affected cetaceans. A training program was then developed and implemented to personnel who were to enact the cetacean response.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 157
Author(s):  
Zongchen Jiang ◽  
Jie Zhang ◽  
Yi Ma ◽  
Xingpeng Mao

Marine oil spills can damage marine ecosystems, economic development, and human health. It is important to accurately identify the type of oil spills and detect the thickness of oil films on the sea surface to obtain the amount of oil spill for on-site emergency responses and scientific decision-making. Optical remote sensing is an important method for marine oil-spill detection and identification. In this study, hyperspectral images of five types of oil spills were obtained using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). To address the poor spectral separability between different types of light oils and weak spectral differences in heavy oils with different thicknesses, we propose the adaptive long-term moment estimation (ALTME) optimizer, which cumulatively learns the spectral characteristics and then builds a marine oil-spill detection model based on a one-dimensional convolutional neural network. The results of the detection experiment show that the ALTME optimizer can store in memory multiple batches of long-term oil-spill spectral information, accurately identify the type of oil spills, and detect different thicknesses of oil films. The overall detection accuracy is larger than 98.09%, and the Kappa coefficient is larger than 0.970. The F1-score for the recognition of light-oil types is larger than 0.971, and the F1-score for detecting films of heavy oils with different film thicknesses is larger than 0.980. The proposed optimizer also performs well on a public hyperspectral dataset. We further carried out a feasibility study on oil-spill detection using UAV thermal infrared remote sensing technology, and the results show its potential for oil-spill detection in strong sunlight.


2020 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 69-79
Author(s):  
Godfried Junio Sebastian Matahelemual ◽  
Agung Budi Harto ◽  
Tri Muji Susantoro

Oil spill is a serious problem that could lead to economic and ecological losses, both in the short and long term. On July 12, 2019, there occurred an oil leakage around YYA-1 oil platform of Pertamina Hulu Energi Offshore North West Java (PHE ONWJ), located off the northern coast of Karawang, Java Sea. This incident has caused the death of fishes and marine animals, damage to coral reefs, mangroves, and seagrass beds, and several health problems of coastal communities. Therefore, it is necessary to map and monitor oil spills, so that actions can be taken to prevent the spread of oil spills. This study aims to map the distribution of oil spills in Karawang sea using multitemporal Sentinel-1 data from July to September 2019. The detection is carried out using the adaptive thresholding algorithm combined with manual interpretation. The result shows that the oil spills spread around Karawang sea from YYA-1 platform to Sedari Village and there are oil spills spreading from the Central Plant F/S platform. The oil spills tend to shift westward from July to September 2019. This shifting is supposed to be influenced by current and wave factors that were dominant moving westward at that time. Based on data processing, it was found that the oil spill area from July to September was respectively 24.79 km2, 20.05 km2, and 27.12 km2.


2020 ◽  
Vol 54 (11) ◽  
pp. 6456-6467 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mace G. Barron ◽  
Deborah N. Vivian ◽  
Ron A. Heintz ◽  
Un Hyuk Yim

2017 ◽  
Vol 75 (3) ◽  
pp. 165-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Rusiecki ◽  
Melannie Alexander ◽  
Erica G Schwartz ◽  
Li Wang ◽  
Laura Weems ◽  
...  

ObjectivesLong-term studies of oil spill responders are urgently needed as oil spills continue to occur. To this end, we established the prospective Deepwater Horizon (DWH) Oil Spill Coast Guard Cohort study.MethodsDWH oil spill responders (n=8696) and non-responders (n=44 823) who were members of the US Coast Guard (20 April–17 December 2010) were included. This cohort uses both prospective, objective health data from military medical encounters and cross-sectional survey data. Here, we describe the cohort, present adjusted prevalence ratios (PRs) estimating cross-sectional associations between crude oil exposure (none, low/medium, high) and acute physical symptoms, and present adjusted relative risks (RRs) based on longitudinal medical encounter data (2010–2012) for responders/non-responders and responders exposed/not exposed to crude oil.ResultsResponders and non-responders in this large cohort (n=53 519) have similar characteristics. Crude oil exposure was reported by >50% of responders. We found statistically significant associations for crude oil exposure with coughing (PRhigh=1.78), shortness of breath (PRhigh=2.30), wheezing (PRhigh=2.32), headaches (PRhigh=1.46), light-headedness/dizziness (PRhigh=1.96), skin rash/itching (PRhigh=1.87), diarrhoea (PRhigh=1.76), stomach pain (PRhigh=1.67), nausea/vomiting (PRhigh=1.48) and painful/burning urination (PRhigh=2.89) during deployment. Longitudinal analyses revealed that responders had elevated RRs for dermal conditions (RR=1.09), as did oil-exposed responders for chronic respiratory conditions (RR=1.32), asthma (RR=1.83) and dermal conditions (RR=1.21).ConclusionsWe found positive associations between crude oil exposure and various acute physical symptoms among responders, as well as longer term health effects. This cohort is well positioned to evaluate both short-term and long-term effects of oil spill exposures using both self-reported and clinical health data.


2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 241-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joohee Lee ◽  
Bret J. Blackmon ◽  
David M. Cochran ◽  
Bandana Kar ◽  
Timothy A. Rehner ◽  
...  

AbstractObjectiveThis study examined the role of community resilience and psychological resilience on depressive symptoms in areas on the Mississippi Gulf Coast that have experienced multiple disasters.MethodsSurvey administration took place in the spring of 2015 to a spatially stratified, random sample of households. This analysis included a total of 294 subjects who lived in 1 of the 3 counties of the Mississippi Gulf Coast at the time of both Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010. The survey included the Communities Advancing Resilience Toolkit (CART) scale, the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC 10), and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D).ResultsThere was a significant inverse relationship between psychological resilience and depressive symptoms and a significant positive relationship between community resilience and psychological resilience. The results also revealed that community resilience was indirectly related to depressive symptoms through the mediating variable of psychological resilience.ConclusionsThese findings highlight the importance of psychological resilience in long-term disaster recovery and imply that long-term recovery efforts should address factors associated with both psychological and community resilience to improve mental health outcomes. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2018;12:241–248)


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