A GIS planning model for urban oil spill management

2001 ◽  
Vol 43 (5) ◽  
pp. 239-244 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Li

Oil spills in industrialized cities pose a significant threat to their urban water environment. The largest city in Canada, the city of Toronto, has an average 300–500 oil spills per year with an average total volume of about 160,000 L/year. About 45% of the spills was eventually cleaned up. Given the enormous amount of remaining oil entering into the fragile urban ecosystem, it is important to develop an effective pollution prevention and control plan for the city. A Geographic Information System (GIS) planning model has been developed to characterize oil spills and determine preventive and control measures available in the city. A database of oil spill records from 1988 to 1997 was compiled and geo-referenced. Attributes to each record such as spill volume, oil type, location, road type, sector, source, cleanup percentage, and environmental impacts were created. GIS layers of woodlots, wetlands, watercourses, Environmental Sensitive Areas, and Areas of Natural and Scientific Interest were obtained from the local Conservation Authority. By overlaying the spill characteristics with the GIS layers, evaluation of preventive and control solutions close to these environmental features was conducted. It was found that employee training and preventive maintenance should be improved as the principal cause of spills was attributed to human errors and equipment failure. Additionally, the cost of using oil separators at strategic spill locations was found to be $1.4 million. The GIS model provides an efficient planning tool for urban oil spill management. Additionally, the graphical capability of GIS allows users to integrate environmental features and spill characteristics in the management analysis.

2012 ◽  
Vol 490-495 ◽  
pp. 3039-3043
Author(s):  
Fan Jie Kong ◽  
Ming Xie ◽  
Yu Chen ◽  
Shu Shen Zhang ◽  
Su Ling Liu

With increasing import and export volumes of oil products in China, port terminals are under increased pressure to prevent water pollution. The prevention of offshore oil spill accidents, and the remedial and control measures for such accidents are one of the most important aspects of maritime management, and are also major issues for the entire shipping industry. This paper describes different emergency materials and equipment for oil spill management and describes the use of these techniques in domestic and international ports. Suggested changes to port emergency materials and equipment are also described, based on the processing capabilities for oil spills in different situations, combined with the port's environmental characteristics and ecological situation


Author(s):  
Hong Chen ◽  
Yang Xu

The impact of environmental regulation has been an important topic. Based on the Chinese Custom Database and China City Statistical Yearbook, this paper investigates the effect of environmental regulation on export values and explores potential mechanisms and heterogeneous effects. Taking advantage of China’s first comprehensive air pollution prevention and control plan, the Air Pollution Control in Key Zones policy, as a quasi-natural experiment, we employ the difference-in-differences method to examine the causal relationship between environmental regulation and exports. We find the statistically significant and negative effect of environmental regulation on exports at the city level. Moreover, we find that the potential mechanism is the change in export values caused by firm entry and exit, especially by exiters, rather than the change in the number of exporting firms in the city caused by firm entry and exit. In addition, we find the heterogeneous effects of environmental regulation based on the differences of environmental policy across cities and the Broad Economic Categories classification.


2016 ◽  
Vol 04 (04) ◽  
pp. 1650027
Author(s):  
Rong ZHU

Analysis of the meteorological conditions for atmospheric pollutant dispersion before and after the 2014 APEC meeting shows very significant effects of air pollution prevention and control measures on the meeting. It proves that the proper measures to control air pollution in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region are: establishing a regional emergency response mechanism to reduce emissions in the case of heavy air pollution, strengthening the local emergency response measures for emission reduction, and enhancing the early warning system for weather conditions conducive to heavy air pollution.


1993 ◽  
Vol 1993 (1) ◽  
pp. 695-697 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas A. Dean ◽  
Lyman McDonald ◽  
Michael S. Stekoll ◽  
Richard R. Rosenthal

ABSTRACT This paper examines alternative designs for the monitoring and assessment of damages of environmental impacts such as oil spills. The optimal design requires sampling at pairs of impacted (oiled) and control (unoiled) sites both before and after the event. However, this design proved impractical in evaluating impacts of the Exxon Valdez oil spill on nearshore subtidal communities, and may be impractical for future monitoring. An alternative design is discussed in which sampling is conducted at pairs of control and impact sites only after the impact.


1989 ◽  
Vol 1989 (1) ◽  
pp. 265-271
Author(s):  
Klaus Schroh

ABSTRACT Prevention and control of oil spills in the Federal Republic of Germany are based on an agreement between the federal government and the four coastal states. Comprehensive procurement and reconstruction programs for oil pollution personnel and equipment are realized and finalized within two years. The Federal Minister for Research and Technology contributed substantially toward using advanced oil spill response techniques at sea and for shoreline cleanup. Since the particular ecological conditions of the Wadden Sea on the German coastline greatly limit dispersant application, main emphasis was given to developing recovery systems meeting the following requirements:An extended scope of mechanical application at sea, for wave heights exceeding 1.2 m (4 feet)New types of recovery vessels with multiple functions, like bunkering services and floating reception facilitiesOil recovery with self-driven vessels for shallow waters close to the coastline and embankmentsDesign of an amphibious chain-driven vehicle for oil recovery in Wadden Sea areas. With the integration of these new types of oil recovery vessels or systems the German recovery fleet now consists of 6 high-sea-going vessels and 14 recovery vessel devices for shoreline cleanup.


1997 ◽  
Vol 1997 (1) ◽  
pp. 891-894
Author(s):  
Pu Baokang

ABSTRACT China has made remarkable progress in oil pollution prevention and control during the past 20 years; most of these advances are summarized in a paper in the proceedings of the 1989 Oil Spill Conference. This paper introduces achievements in the same areas 5 years since that conference. It covers legislation and its implementation; equipment, materials, and methods of usage with some national characteristics; scientific studies carried out in various institutes and colleges; monitoring of oil spills on land, in ports, and at sea by the local National Environment Protection Agent (????), the Harbor Superin-tendency Administration (HSA), and the National Oceanographic Bureau (NOB), respectively; education, training, and information services; and international activities, including Chinese delegates performance dealing with Annex I: Prevention of Pollution by Oil of the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (1973) as modified by the Protocol of 1978 relating thereto (MARPOL 73/78) of IMO. China must keep a balance between economic growth and pollution prevalency, a challenge compounded by a shortage of financial support.


2001 ◽  
Vol 2001 (2) ◽  
pp. 1467-1469
Author(s):  
Stéphane Grenon ◽  
Vincent Jarry ◽  
Darcy Longpré ◽  
Kenneth Lee ◽  
Albert D. Venosa

ABSTRACT The St. Lawrence River, situated between Canada and the United States, provides a major transport route in North America for the transport of millions of tons of crude oil, condensates, and refined products each year. In addition, as one of the largest rivers in the world, it is of major ecological significance. For example, over 55,000 hectares of wetlands are found along the St. Lawrence alone. These areas provide habitat for wildlife, the nurseries for fisheries, and control coastal erosion are highly vulnerable to oil spills. Furthermore, as traditional oil spill cleanup methods may be ineffective or cause more damage, emergency responders are considering less intrusive methods such as biorestoration as operational countermeasures. A biorestoration experiment was designed to measure the effectiveness of this method in the St. Lawrence River. To conduct this experiment, 1,200 liters of crude oil were to be spilled in a controlled manner over an experimental zone of 750 m2 in a marsh area. To obtain regulatory approvals from governmental agencies, environmental groups and, more importantly, to avoid the “not in my backyard” protests from the local communities, site selection, emergency planning, contingency measures, and especially community meetings, were all necessary steps towards the acceptance of the project. This controlled spill was done in June 1998 without any incident. Sampling of the experimental site will be completed in the fall of 2000. This paper aims to provide insights on the steps needed to gain acceptance from concerned citizens for the conduct of a controlled oil spill experiment.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Celia Fan

Electrical transformer stations use transformer oil to increase the efficiency of the electrical voltage transfer and to reduce the moisture and air in an electrical transformer. Each year, there is a high probability of spilling the transformer oil accidentally into the environment. Some spill events contain large volume of transformer oil. The objective of this thesis is to investigate oil spill control systems for spilled transformer oil during all operating and weathering conditions at a Hydro One's transformer station near the city of Burlington. This thesis examines the design of (1) oil trap systems which trap the spilled transformer oil and (2) the oil back-up systems thick back up the transformer oil spills to the transformer station. This research focuses primarily on Hydro One's transformer stations and the normal operation conditions in Ontario.


2013 ◽  
Vol 55 (4) ◽  
pp. 239-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Soledad Santini ◽  
Ignacio Tomas Gould ◽  
Mariana Manteca Acosta ◽  
Pablo Berrozpe ◽  
Soraya Alejandra Acardi ◽  
...  

SUMMARY The first Argentinian autochthonous human case of visceral leishmaniasis (VL) was confirmed in Posadas (Misiones) in 2006. Since then, the disease has increased its incidence and geographical distribution. In the 2006-2012 period, 107 human cases were detected (11 deaths). The presence of Lutzomyia longipalpis was detected in peridomiciles in Puerto Iguazú urban area in 2010; some of these findings were associated with households where cases of canine VL had already been reported. The objective of this study was to ascertain the abundance and spatial distribution of Lu. longipalpis in Puerto Iguazú City, on the Argentina-Brazil-Paraguay border. Lu. longipalpis proved to be exclusively urban and was found in 31% of the households sampled (n = 53), 67% of which belonged to areas of low abundance, 20% to areas of moderate abundance and 13% to areas of high abundance. Nyssomyia whitmani was the only species found both in urban and peri-urban environments, and Migonemyia migonei was registered only on the outskirts of the city. Due to the fact that Puerto Iguazú is considered to be at moderate risk at the moment, it is necessary to intensify human and canine case controls, as well as take integrated prevention and control measures regarding the environment, vectors and reservoirs on the Argentina-Brazil-Paraguay border area.


1979 ◽  
Vol 1979 (1) ◽  
pp. 225-227 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald A. Alberts

ABSTRACT A number of oil companies operating in the Caribbean have formed the Clean Caribbean Cooperative (CCC) with the objective of enhancing the capability to promptly and efficiently respond to oil spills which cause, or threaten to cause, pollution damage to beaches, harbors, offshore islands, and waters of the Caribbean. CCC resources are available to respond to spills within the area bounded by the coasts of Central America, South America, and Panama. These resources are designed to be used in remote areas where little or no response capability is in place, as well as to supplement the present capability in certain other areas. CCC member companies agreed to share the costs of providing a source of materials, equipment, and services to be used in responding to an oil spill incident. Use of the equipment, as well as management of the total response effort, is the responsibility of the company or agency which is taking action to control the spill. The CCC as an organized unit does not engage in joint or collective action in transporting or operating the facilities, arranging for personnel, providing management, or in any way becoming part of the on-scene control activity at the spill site. Because of the large area of the Caribbean, surface transportation cannot be relied on totally to bring resources to a spill at a great distance from locations where the oil industry and other agencies have oil spill cleanup capability in place. Therefore, the CCC leased a select stockpile of equipment which is kept in readiness for prompt dispatch by air. Because of the great variation in conditions surrounding an oil spill, control measures cannot be expected to be 100% effective in preventing any damage. However, by rapidly initiating action under a preplanned response system, the ability to avoid or substantially mitigate the effects of an oil spill is greatly enhanced.


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