A Review of River Oil Spill Modeling

River oil spills are generally more frequent and pose greater environmental and public health risk than coastal and offshore oil spills. However, the river oil spill research has received a negligible amount of academic attention in the past three decades, while at the same time the coastal and offshore oil spill research has expanded and evolved tremendously. This paper provides the state-of-the-art review of river oil spill modeling and summarizes the developments in the field from 1994 to present. The review has revealed that the majority of the gaps in knowledge still remain. Thus, there is a need for (i) experimental studies in order to develop and validate new models and better understand the main physicochemical processes, (ii) studies on inter-linking of the governing processes, such as hydrodynamics, advection–dispersion, and weathering processes, (iii) adaptation and validation of coastal and offshore oil spill models for applications in riverine environments, and (iv) development of river oil spill remote sensing systems and detection techniques. Finally, there is a need to more actively promote the importance of river oil spill research and modeling in the context of environmental and public health protection, which would form the basis for obtaining more research funding and thus more academic attention.

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Oil spill modeling: Mapping the knowledge domain

Progress in Physical Geography Earth and Environment ◽

10.1177/0309133319897503 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 44 (1) ◽

pp. 120-136 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Jake R Nelson ◽

Tony H Grubesic

Keyword(s):

Oil Spill ◽

Oil Spills ◽

Social Systems ◽

50Th Anniversary ◽

Citation Network ◽

Knowledge Domain ◽

Santa Barbara ◽

Oil Spill Modeling ◽

Offshore Oil ◽

Future Work

The year 2019 marks the anniversary of two major US offshore oil spills: the 50th anniversary of the Santa Barbara spill and the 30th anniversary of the Exxon Valdez. The consequences of these spills are profound, echoing throughout countless environmental, ecological and social systems. Each spill sparked a flurry of research focusing on the analysis and documentation of spill impacts and responses. The purpose of this progress report is to evaluate oil spill modeling research as a knowledge domain. Using bibliometric analysis techniques, we constructed a co-citation network for exploring key areas of research and seminal papers to highlight the evolution of oil spill research over the past 50 years. The paper concludes with recommendations for future work, detailing the importance of connecting the physical and social sciences for deepening our understanding of oil spills and their broader implications for communities and the environment.

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Oil Spill Modeling: A Critical Review on Current Trends, Perspectives, and Challenges

Journal of Marine Science and Engineering ◽

10.3390/jmse9020181 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 (2) ◽

pp. 181

Author(s):

Panagiota Keramea ◽

Katerina Spanoudaki ◽

George Zodiatis ◽

Georgios Gikas ◽

Georgios Sylaios

Keyword(s):

Oil Spill ◽

Oil Spills ◽

Numerical Models ◽

Vertical Mixing ◽

Three Dimensional ◽

Simulation Models ◽

Weathering Processes ◽

Marine Traffic ◽

Oil Spill Modeling ◽

New Generation

Several oil spill simulation models exist in the literature, which are used worldwide to simulate the evolution of an oil slick created from marine traffic, petroleum production, or other sources. These models may range from simple parametric calculations to advanced, new-generation, operational, three-dimensional numerical models, coupled to meteorological, hydrodynamic, and wave models, forecasting in high-resolution and with high precision the transport and fate of oil. This study presents a review of the transport and oil weathering processes and their parameterization and critically examines eighteen state-of-the-art oil spill models in terms of their capacity (a) to simulate these processes, (b) to consider oil released from surface or submerged sources, (c) to assimilate real-time field data for model initiation and forcing, and (d) to assess uncertainty in the produced predictions. Based on our review, the most common oil weathering processes involved are spreading, advection, diffusion, evaporation, emulsification, and dispersion. The majority of existing oil spill models do not consider significant physical processes, such as oil dissolution, photo-oxidation, biodegradation, and vertical mixing. Moreover, timely response to oil spills is lacking in the new generation of oil spill models. Further improvements in oil spill modeling should emphasize more comprehensive parametrization of oil dissolution, biodegradation, entrainment, and prediction of oil particles size distribution following wave action and well blow outs.

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CONTINGENCY PLANNING FOR OFFSHORE OIL SPILLS

The APPEA Journal ◽

10.1071/aj72021 ◽

1973 ◽

Vol 13 (1) ◽

pp. 140

Author(s):

G. N. Keith

Keyword(s):

Oil Spill ◽

Oil Spills ◽

Action Plan ◽

First Aid ◽

Contingency Planning ◽

Santa Barbara ◽

Contingency Plan ◽

Oil Spillage ◽

Exploration And Production ◽

Offshore Oil

The incidence of oil spillage from offshore exploration and production activities is comparatively low but the Santa Barbara and Chevron blowouts remind us of what can happen.There are two things each operator can do to help ensure he is prepared in the event of an emergency. First, a comprehensive inhouse contingency plan should be prepared before commencing operations in an area. The plan will ensure that adequate first-aid measures are on hand at all times and will go on to list the location and availability of additional assistance both in equipment and manpower.Second, the operator should be prepared to participate in the oil industry's National Oil Spills Action Plan. This plan is designed to ensure that the entire resources of the industry can be made available and effectively co-ordinated to combat an oil spill anywhere on the coast of Australia.

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A Comprehensive System for Simulating Oil Spill Trajectory and Behaviour in Subsurface and Surface Water Environments

International Oil Spill Conference Proceedings ◽

10.7901/2169-3358-2017.1.1251 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 2017 (1) ◽

pp. 1251-1266 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Pu Li ◽

Haibo Niu ◽

Shihan Li ◽

Rodrigo Fernandes ◽

Ramiro Neves

Keyword(s):

Oil Spill ◽

Oil Spills ◽

Comprehensive System ◽

Coupled Models ◽

Negative Impacts ◽

Integrated Or ◽

Offshore Oil ◽

Significant Support ◽

Oil Droplet Size

Abstract 2017-184: Accidental release of pollutants such as offshore oil spills can cause significant negative impacts on the environment and socio-economy, and constitutes a direct hazard to marine life and human health. Particularly, deepwater blowout released spills are more challenging to study because the trajectory and behaviour of oil are difficult to be comprehensively simulated. Although there are many integrated or coupled models available, there still lacks open source deepwater oil spill models to predict not only the trajectory but also the mass balance of oil. It is the objective of this study to fill this gap by coupling the Texas A&M Oilspill Calculator (TAMOC) for nearfield simulation and the advanced oil spill module in the Modelo Hidrodinâmico (MOHID) 3D Water modeling system. In addition, the Weber number scaling approach is also integrated in both the near- and far-field simulation for oil droplet size prediction. The applicability of the proposed comprehensive system is tested by a case study of simulation of oil spills released from a depth of 3,500 m in the Scotian Shelf, Canada. The results demonstrate a high feasibility of the proposed system. By providing comprehensive simulation for oil spills, the developed system should provide significant support to the response to offshore oil spill, especially from deepwater blowout.

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Offshore Oil Spill Incidents: Creating a Database in Brazil

International Oil Spill Conference Proceedings ◽

10.7901/2169-3358-2014.1.26 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 2014 (1) ◽

pp. 26-30

Author(s):

Patricia Maggi ◽

Cláudia do Rosário Vaz Morgado ◽

João Carlos Nóbrega de Almeida

Keyword(s):

Oil Spill ◽

Oil And Gas ◽

Oil Spills ◽

Oil And Gas Industry ◽

Guanabara Bay ◽

Federal Law ◽

Gas Industry ◽

Oil And Gas Exploration ◽

Exploration And Production ◽

Offshore Oil

ABSTRACT Brazil has performed an important role in the oil and gas industry mainly because its offshore E&P activities. The volume of oil produced in offshore fields had increased 88% in the last decade and correspond to more than 90% of national production. The maritime Exploration and Production (E&P) operations in Brazil started in the middle of the 1970's. In 1981 a law was promulgated to establish a compulsory environmental permit to many activities, including oil and gas exploration and production activities. Although this regulation has existed for over 25 years, only in 1999 was it effectively brought into force to the E&P sector, with the creation of the oil and gas specialized office integrated to the Intituto Brasileiro de Meio Ambiente e Recursos Naturais Renováveis – IBAMA (Brazilian Federal Environmental Agency). On January 2000 Brazil faced one its worst oil spills, in Guanabara Bay. A broken pipeline owned and operated by Petrobras spilt 1300 tone of bunker fuel into Guanabara Bay, Rio de Janeiro. At that time, Brazil had no clear environmental scenario regarding the oil industry in Brazil: uncoordinated environmental regulations, debilitated environmental agencies and a relapse industry took part in the scenario. As a result of the repercussion of the disaster, in the same year was enacted the Federal Law 9966/2000, the so called “Oil Law”, on the prevention, control and inspection of pollution caused by the releasing of oil and other harmful substances in waters under national jurisdiction. The provisions of the Law 9966 included, among other things, the requirement for the notification to the competent environmental authority, the maritime authority and the oil regulating agency, of any incident which might cause water pollution. Although IBAMA receives the oil spill communications since 2001, only in 2010 the Agency began to include this information in a database. This paper discusses the offshore oil spill data received between 2010 and 2012.

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Oil Spills and Safety – Community Outreach and Education in Oil Spill Response

International Oil Spill Conference Proceedings ◽

10.7901/2169-3358-2003-1-877 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 2003 (1) ◽

pp. 877-883

Author(s):

Scott McCreery ◽

Michael Myers ◽

Anita White

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Oil Spill ◽

Oil Spills ◽

Health And Safety ◽

Community Outreach ◽

Public Perceptions ◽

Outreach Program ◽

Oil Spill Response ◽

Local Residents ◽

Public Health And Safety

ABSTRACT In the summer of 2001, an oil spill into the Strait of Georgia occurred from a tank vessel docked at the BP Cherry Point Refinery. The resultant sheen impacted approximately three miles of pristine beach. While the spill volume was relatively small, odors from the spill of mixed slop materials were strong enough to prompt several residents to evacuate their homes. In response to this experience, the BP Cherry Point Refinery developed a community outreach program focused on educating local residents about the nature of oil spills, including oil spill response and issues of public health and safety. Rooted in both research and past experience with risk communication, this approach provides a model for engaging local communities in educational efforts to ensure public health and safety in the event of a spill, and for addressing public perceptions regarding response effectiveness.

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A Comparative Study on Emergency Materials and Equipment for Oil Spills

Advanced Materials Research ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/amr.490-495.3039 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 490-495 ◽

pp. 3039-3043

Author(s):

Fan Jie Kong ◽

Ming Xie ◽

Yu Chen ◽

Shu Shen Zhang ◽

Su Ling Liu

Keyword(s):

Water Pollution ◽

Oil Spill ◽

Oil Spills ◽

Control Measures ◽

Shipping Industry ◽

Ecological Situation ◽

Import And Export ◽

And Control ◽

Offshore Oil ◽

Increased Pressure

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

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OIL SPILL TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT IN CANADA

International Oil Spill Conference Proceedings ◽

10.7901/2169-3358-1975-1-329 ◽

1975 ◽

Vol 1975 (1) ◽

pp. 329-335

Author(s):

S.L. Ross

Keyword(s):

Oil Spill ◽

Oil Spills ◽

Technology Development ◽

Research Effort ◽

The Arctic ◽

The North ◽

Sensing Systems ◽

Remote Sensing Systems ◽

Technology Group ◽

St Lawrence River

ABSTRACT In mid-1972, the Environmental Emergency Branch was formed within the Canadian Department of the Environment. This organization, which is part of the Environmental Protection Service, is responsible for protective and preventative activities related to pollution emergencies, including oil spills. The technology development work carried out by the branch can be divided into two main programs. One is the testing, evaluation, and development of oil spill countermeasures equipment, materials, and techniques. The program for oil spill equipment including skimmers, booms, pumps, and remote sensing systems is being carried out in Hamilton Harbour and Lake Ontario. Much work is also underway on the testing, evaluation, and development of various oil spill treating agents, including dispersants, absorbents, sinking agents, biodegradation agents, combustion agents, and chemical oil herders. The other main responsibility of the spill technology group is to design and develop various countermeasures systems for specific high risk and sensitive areas in Canada. This program involves putting together the various countermeasures equipment and materials described above into integrated systems that can be used to fight spills in specific locations. Four areas which are being thoroughly investigated at this time are Vancouver Harbour, the Beaufort Sea, the St. Clair River, and the St. Lawrence River. These areas are quite different environmentally, and the “custom-designed” countermeasures systems needed for each area are similarly different. Much of the technology development and research effort in Canada has been directed toward cold environment problems. This includes studies related to drilling blowouts in the Arctic, to pipeline spills under winter conditions, to dyking of storage facilities in the north, and to spills in ice-infested water.

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An Operational Marine Oil Spill Forecasting Tool for the Management of Emergencies in the Italian Seas

Journal of Marine Science and Engineering ◽

10.3390/jmse7010001 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

pp. 1 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Alberto Ribotti ◽

Fabio Antognarelli ◽

Andrea Cucco ◽

Marcello Falcieri ◽

Leopoldo Fazioli ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Oil Spill ◽

Adriatic Sea ◽

Oil Spills ◽

Spatial Scales ◽

Oil Fields ◽

Short Term ◽

Weathering Processes ◽

Oil Platforms ◽

Forecasting System ◽

Set Up

Oil extraction platforms are potential sources of oil spills. For this reason, an oil spill forecasting system was set up to support the management of emergencies from the oil fields in the Italian seas. The system provides ready-to-use products to the relevant response agencies and optimizes the anti-pollution resources by assessing hazards and risks related to this issue. The forecasting system covers seven working oil platforms in the Sicily Channel and middle/low Adriatic Sea. It is composed of a numerical chain involving nested ocean models from regional to coastal spatial scales and an oil spill model. The system provides two online services, one automatic and a second dedicated to possible real emergencies or exercises on risk preparedness and responding. The automatic service produces daily short-term simulations of hypothetical oil spill dispersion, transport, and weathering processes from each extraction platform. Products, i.e., risk maps, animations, and a properly called bulletin, are available on a dedicated web-portal. The hazard estimations are computed by performing geo-statistical analysis on the daily forecasts database. The second service is activated in near-real-time producing oil spill simulations for the following 48 h.

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Modeling of Accidental Oil Spills at Different Phases of LNG Terminal Construction

Journal of Marine Science and Engineering ◽

10.3390/jmse9040392 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 (4) ◽

pp. 392

Author(s):

Byoungjoon Na ◽

Sangyoung Son ◽

Jae-Cheon Choi

Keyword(s):

Oil Spill ◽

Oil Spills ◽

Current Model ◽

Contributing Factors ◽

Loosely Coupled ◽

Oil Slick ◽

Advection Dispersion ◽

Efdc Model ◽

Spilled Oil ◽

Environmental Fluid

Accidental oil spills not only deteriorate biodiversity but also cause immediate threats to coastal environments. This study quantitatively investigates the initial dispersion of spilled oil using the environmental fluid dynamics code (EFDC) model, loosely coupled with an endorsed oil spill model (MEDSLIK-II) accounting for time-dependent advection, diffusion, and physiochemical weathering of the surface oil slick. Focusing on local contributing factors (i.e., construction activities) to oil dispersion, the current model is applied to likely oil spills occurring at three different phases of the Songdo LNG terminal construction on a reclaimed site in South Korea. Applied phases pose detailed ship collision scenarios generated based on a proposed construction plan of the terminal. The effects of permeable revetments, required for reclamation, on the currents were also investigated and applied in subsequent oil spill modeling. For each scenario, the simulated results showed distinct patterns in the advection, dispersion, and transformation of the oil slick. Oil absorption into the coast, which causes immense damage to the coastal communities, is found to be highly dependent on the tidal currents, volume of oil spilled, and nearby construction activities.

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