Offshore oil spill detection using synthetic aperture radar

Among the different types of marine pollution, oil spill has been considered as a major threat to the sea ecosystems. The source of the oil pollution can be located on the mainland or directly at sea. The sources of oil pollution at sea are discharges coming from ships, offshore platforms or natural seepage from sea bed. Oil pollution from sea-based sources can be accidental or deliberate. Different sensors to detect and monitor oil spills could be onboard vessels, aircraft, or satellites. Vessels equipped with specialised radars, can detect oil at sea but they can cover a very limited area. One of the established ways to monitor sea-based oil pollution is the use of satellites equipped with Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR).The aim of the work presented in this thesis is to identify optimum set of feature extracted parameters and implement methods at various stages for oil spill detection from Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery. More than 200 images of ERS-2, ENVSAT and RADARSAT 2 SAR sensor have been used to assess proposed feature vector for oil spill detection methodology, which involves three stages: segmentation for dark spot detection, feature extraction and classification of feature vector. Unfortunately oil spill is not only the phenomenon that can create a dark spot in SAR imagery. There are several others meteorological and oceanographic and wind induced phenomena which may lead to a dark spot in SAR imagery. Therefore, these dark objects also appear similar to the dark spot due to oil spill and are called as look-alikes. These look-alikes thus cause difficulty in detecting oil spill spots as their primary characteristic similar to oil spill spots. To get over this difficulty, feature extraction becomes important; a stage which may involve selection of appropriate feature extraction parameters. The main objective of this dissertation is to identify the optimum feature vector in order to segregate oil spill and ‘look-alike’ spots. A total of 44 Feature extracted parameters have been studied. For segmentation, four methods; based on edge detection, adaptive theresholding, artificial neural network (ANN) segmentation and the other on contrast split segmentation have been implemented. Spot features are extracted from both the dark spots themselves and their surroundings. Classification stage was performed using two different classification techniques, first one is based on ANN and the other based on a two-stage processing that combines classification tree analysis and fuzzy logic. A modified feature vector, including both new and improved features, is suggested for better description of different types of dark spots. An ANN classifier using full spectrum of feature parameters has also been developed and evaluated. The implemented methodology appears promising in detecting dark spots and discriminating oil spills from look-alikes and processing time is well below any operational service requirements

Oil spill identification in visible sensor imaging using automated cross correlation with crude oil image filters

An algorithm for detection of crude oil spills in visible light images has been developed and tested on 50 documented crude oil spill images from Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) Nigeria. A set of three 25 x 25 pixels crude oil filters, with unique red, green, and blue (RGB) colour values, homogeneity, and power spectrum density (PSD) features were cross-correlated with the documented spill images. The final crude oil spill Region of Interest (ROI) was determined by grouping interconnected pixels based on their proximity, and only selecting ROIs with an area greater than 5,000 pixels. The crude oil filter cross correlation algorithm demonstrated a sensitivity of 84% with a False Positive per Image (FPI) of 0.82. Future work includes volume estimation of detected spills using crude oil filters, and utilizing this information in the recommendation of appropriate spill clean-up and remediation procedures for the detected spills. Keywords: Crude Oil Spill Detection, Crude oil image filters, Cross correlation, Visible sensor imaging, Oil Spill Segmentation

Oil Spills Detection from SAR Images Using Wavelets

Oil spills detection is an actual environmental problem. Oil spills can occur during ships’ oil and/or fuel leakage or in great catastrophes. Small leaks are hardly detectable. Early detection and monitoring of greater spills can be useful in damage suppression and control. A new oil spill detection algorithm is presented in the paper. The algorithm is based on wavelet analysis of the radar image and the data fusion of VTS data, which should correlate to the image processing results to obtain the validated detection. The proposed algorithm exploits both the approximation and the details of the wavelet decomposition.Oil spills detection is an actual environmental problem. Oil spills can occur during ships’ oil and/or fuel leakage or in great catastrophes. Small leaks are hardly detectable. Early detection and monitoring of greater spills can be useful in damage suppression and control. A new oil spill detection algorithm is presented in the paper. The algorithm is based on wavelet analysis of the radar image and the data fusion of VTS data, which should correlate to the image processing results to obtain the validated detection. The proposed algorithm exploits both the approximation and the details of the wavelet decomposition

Observing Marine Pollution with Synthetic Aperture Radar

Non

Computational Techniques of Oil Spill Detection in Synthetic Aperture Radar Data: Review Cases

In this chapter, a major role of environmental assessment is an oil spill identifies or detected from the coastal region surfaces or marine surroundings. Normally, the oil spills on the coastal regions impact their characteristics of environmental activities. However, these activities are monitoring through several radar satellites and sensor. For those achievable activities detecting or identifying, many researchers developed several approaches. Particularly, this chapter discusses about the detection of oil spill current operational effects on coastal region surfaces. In addition, the current research operations of oil spill characterizations and quality of its impacts, effects of current environmental bio-systems, their control measurement strategies, and its surveillance operations are discussed. Finally, the oil spill detection is done through the SAR image region classification based on its feature extraction. This could be monitored from the image dark region selection through remote sensing techniques

Unsupervised multi-scale change detection from SAR imagery for monitoring natural and anthropogenic disasters

Thesis (Ph.D.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2017Radar remote sensing can play a critical role in operational monitoring of natural and anthropogenic disasters. Despite its all-weather capabilities, and its high performance in mapping, and monitoring of change, the application of radar remote sensing in operational monitoring activities has been limited. This has largely been due to: (1) the historically high costs associated with obtaining radar data; (2) slow data processing, and delivery procedures; and (3) the limited temporal sampling that was provided by spaceborne radar-based satellites. Recent advances in the capabilities of spaceborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) sensors have developed an environment that now allows for SAR to make significant contributions to disaster monitoring. New SAR processing strategies that can take full advantage of these new sensor capabilities are currently being developed. Hence, with this PhD dissertation, I aim to: (i) investigate unsupervised change detection techniques that can reliably extract signatures from time series of SAR images, and provide the necessary flexibility for application to a variety of natural, and anthropogenic hazard situations; (ii) investigate effective methods to reduce the effects of speckle and other noise on change detection performance; (iii) automate change detection algorithms using probabilistic Bayesian inferencing; and (iv) ensure that the developed technology is applicable to current, and future SAR sensors to maximize temporal sampling of a hazardous event. This is achieved by developing new algorithms that rely on image amplitude information only, the sole image parameter that is available for every single SAR acquisition. The motivation and implementation of the change detection concept are described in detail in Chapter 3. In the same chapter, I demonstrated the technique's performance using synthetic data as well as a real-data application to map wildfire progression. I applied Radiometric Terrain Correction (RTC) to the data to increase the sampling frequency, while the developed multiscaledriven approach reliably identified changes embedded in largely stationary background scenes. With this technique, I was able to identify the extent of burn scars with high accuracy. I further applied the application of the change detection technology to oil spill mapping. The analysis highlights that the approach described in Chapter 3 can be applied to this drastically different change detection problem with only little modification. While the core of the change detection technique remained unchanged, I made modifications to the pre-processing step to enable change detection from scenes of continuously varying background. I introduced the Lipschitz regularity (LR) transformation as a technique to normalize the typically dynamic ocean surface, facilitating high performance oil spill detection independent of environmental conditions during image acquisition. For instance, I showed that LR processing reduces the sensitivity of change detection performance to variations in surface winds, which is a known limitation in oil spill detection from SAR. Finally, I applied the change detection technique to aufeis flood mapping along the Sagavanirktok River. Due to the complex nature of aufeis flooded areas, I substituted the resolution-preserving speckle filter used in Chapter 3 with curvelet filters. In addition to validating the performance of the change detection results, I also provide evidence of the wealth of information that can be extracted about aufeis flooding events once a time series of change detection information was extracted from SAR imagery. A summary of the developed change detection techniques is conducted and suggested future work is presented in Chapter 6

OIL SPILL ALONG THE TURKISH STRAITS SEA AREA; ACCIDENTS, ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION, SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPACTS AND PROTECTION

The Turkish Straits Sea Area (TSSA) is a long water passage that is consisted of the Sea of Marmara, an inland sea within Turkey's borders, and two narrow straits connected to neighboring seas. With a strategic location between the Balkans and Anatolia, the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, and dominated by the continental climate, the region hosted many civilizations throughout the centuries. This makes the region among the busiest routes in the world, with sea traffic three times higher than that in the Suez Canal. The straits are the most difficult waterways to navigate and witnessed many hazardous and important collisions and accidents throughout history. In addition, this area has vital roles as a biological corridor and barrier among three distinctive marine realms. Therefore, the region is rather sensitive to damages of national and international maritime activities, which may cause severe environmental problems. This book addresses several key questions on a chapter basis, including historical accidents, background information on main dynamic restrictions, oil pollution, oil spill detection, and clean-up recoveries, its impacts on biological communities, socioeconomic aspects, and subjects with international agreements. This book will help readers, public, local and governmental authorities gain a deeper understanding of the status of the oil spill, mostly due to shipping accidents, and their related impacts along the TSSA, which needs precautionary measures to be protected.CONTENTS INTRODUCTION CHAPTER I - HISTORY OF ACCIDENTS AND REGULATIONS Remarkable Accidents at the Istanbul Strait Hasan Bora USLUER and Saim OĞUZÜLGEN …………………………………...... 3 History of Regulations before Republican Era along the Turkish Straits Sea Area Ali Umut ÜNAL …………………………………………………………………….. 16 Transition Regime in the Turkish Straits during the Republican Era Osman ARSLAN ……….……………………………………………………….……26 26 The Montreux Convention and Effects at Turkish Straits Oktay ÇETİN ………………………………………………………………….…….. 33 Evaluation of the Montreux Convention in the Light of Recent Problems Ayşenur TÜTÜNCÜ ………………………………………………………………… 44 A Historical View on Technical Developments on Ships and Effects of Turkish Straits Murat YAPICI ………………………………………………………………………. 55 CHAPTER II - GEOGRAPHY, BATHYMETRY AND HYDRO-METEOROLOGICAL CONDITIONS Geographic and Bathymetric Restrictions along the Turkish Straits Sea Area Bedri ALPAR, Hasan Bora USLUER and Şenol AYDIN ……………………..…… 61 Hydrodynamics and Modeling of Turkish Straits Serdar BEJİ and Tarkan ERDİK ………………………………………………….… 79 Wave Climate in the Turkish Sea of Marmara Tarkan ERDİK and Serdar BEJİ …………………………………………………..… 91 CHAPTER III - OIL POLLUTION, DETECTION AND RECOVERY Oil Pollution at Sea and Coast Following Major Accidents Selma ÜNLÜ ……………………………………………………………………….101 Forensic Fingerprinting in Oil-spill Source Identification at the Turkish Straits Sea Area Özlem ATEŞ DURU ……………………………………………………………… 121 xi Oil Spill Detection Using Remote Sensing Technologies-Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) İbrahim PAPİLA, Elif SERTEL, Şinasi KAYA and Cem GAZİOĞLU ……..……. 140 The Role of SAR Remote Sensing to Detect Oil Pollution and Emergency Intervention Saygın ABDIKAN, Çağlar BAYIK and Füsun BALIK ŞANLI ……….….……….. 157 Oil Spill Recovery and Clean-Up Techniques Emra KIZILAY, Mehtap AKBAŞ and Tahir Yavuz GEZBELİ …………………… 176 Turkish Strait Sea Area, Contingency Planning, Regulations and Case Studies Emra KIZILAY, Mehtap AKBAŞ and Tahir Yavuz GEZBELİ …………………... 188 Dispersant Response Method to Incidental Oil Pollution Dilek EDİGER, Leyla TOLUN and Fatma TELLİ KARAKOÇ ………………….... 205 CHAPTER IV - THE EFFECTS / IMPACTS OF OIL SPILL ON BIOLOGICAL COMMUNITIES – INCLUDING SAMPLING AND MONITORING Marine Microorganisms and Oil Spill Sibel ZEKİ and Pelin S. ÇİFTÇİ TÜRETKEN …………...………………………… 219 Estimated Effects of Oil Spill on the Phytoplankton Following “Volgoneft-248” Accident (Sea of Marmara) Seyfettin TAŞ ………………………………..…………………………………….... 229 Interactions between Zooplankton and Oil Spills: Lessons Learned from Global Accidents and a Proposal for Zooplankton Monitoring İ. Noyan YILMAZ and Melek İŞİNİBİLİR ……………………………………..….. 238 The Effects of Oil Spill on the Macrophytobenthic Communities Ergün TAŞKIN and Barış AKÇALI …………………………….…………….……. 244 Potential Impacts of Oil Spills on Macrozoobenthos in the Turkish Straits System Güley KURT-ŞAHİN …………………………………………………………….… 253 The Anticipated Effects of Oil Spill on Fish Populations in Case of an Accident along the Turkish Straits System – A review of Studies after Several Incidents from the World M. İdil ÖZ and Nazlı DEMİREL …………………………………………………….261 Estimated Impacts of an Oil Spill on Bird Populations along the Turkish Straits System Itri Levent ERKOL …………………………………………………………….…… 272 The Effect of Oil Spills on Cetaceans in the Turkish Straits System (TSS) Ayaka Amaha ÖZTÜRK ………………………………………………………….. 277 Changes in the Ichthyoplankton and Benthos Assemblages following Volgoneft-248 Oil Spill: Case Study Ahsen YÜKSEK and Yaprak GÜRKAN …………………………………….……. 280 Assessing the Initial and Temporal Effects of a Heavy Fuel Oil Spill on Benthic Fauna Yaprak GÜRKAN, Ahsen YÜKSEK ………………………………………..…….. 287 CHAPTER V - SOCIO-ECONOMIC ASPECTS Socio-economic Aspects of Oil Spill Özlem ATEŞ DURU and Serap İNCAZ ……………………………………….…… 301 Effects of Oil Spill on Human Health Türkan YURDUN ………………………………………………………………..…. 313 Crisis Management of Oil Spill, A Case Study: BP Gulf Mexico Oil Disaster Serap İNCAZ and Özlem ATEŞ DURU …………………………….………….……324 CHAPTER VI - CONVENTIONS RELATING TO PREVENTION OF OIL SPILL International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution of the Sea by Oil (OILPOL), 1954 and its Situation Related with Turkey Emre AKYÜZ, Metin ÇELİK and Ömer SÖNER …………………………...……... 334 International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, 1973, as Modified by the Protocol of 1978 Relating Thereto and by the Protocol of 1997 (MARPOL) Özcan ARSLAN, Esma UFLAZ and Serap İNCAZ ………………………….……. 342 Applications of MARPOL Related with Oil Spill in Turkey Emre AKYÜZ, Özcan ASLAN and Serap İNCAZ ………………………………… 356 Ship Born Oil Pollution at the Turkish Straits Sea Area and MARPOL 73/78 Duygu ÜLKER and Sencer BALTAOĞLU………………………….…………….. 363 International Convention Relating to Intervention on the High Seas in Cases of Oil Pollution Casualties (INTERVENTION 1969) and its Applications Related with Oil Spill in Turkey Şebnem ERKEBAY ……………………………….……………………………….. 371 International Convention on Oil Pollution Preparedness, Response and Co-operation (OPRC) 1990 and its Applications Related with Oil Spill in Turkey Kadir ÇİÇEK ………………………………………………………………………. 381 Protocol on Preparedness, Response and Co-operation to Pollution Incidents by Hazardous and Noxious Substances, 2000 (OPRC-HNS Protocol) and its Effects in Turkey Aydın ŞIHMANTEPE and Cihat AŞAN ……………….…………………………. 392 The International Convention on Salvage (SALVAGE) 1989 Related with Oil Spill in Turkey İrşad BAYIRHAN ……………………………………….………………..……….. 408 CHAPTER VII - CONVENTIONS COVERING LIABILITY AND COMPENSATION RELATED WITH OIL SPILL International Convention on Civil Liability for Oil Pollution Damage (CLC), 1969 and its Applications Serap İNCAZ and Pınar ÖZDEMİR ……………………………………..………… 416 1992 Protocol to the International Convention on the Establishment of an International Fund for Compensation for Oil Pollution Damage (FUND 1992) and its Applications Related with Oil Spill in Turkey Ali Umut ÜNAL and Hasan Bora USLUER …………………………….………… 424 International Convention on Liability and Compensation for Damage in Connection with the Carriage of Hazardous and Noxious Substances by Sea (HNS), 1996 (and its 2010 Protocol) and its Applications Related with Oil Spill in Turkey Bilun ELMACIOĞLU ……………………………………………………………… 437 Bunkering Incidents and Safety Practices in Turkey Fırat BOLAT, Pelin BOLAT and Serap İNCAZ …………………………………... 447 "Nairobi International Convention on the Removal of Wrecks 2007" and its Effects on Turkey Şafak Ümit DENİZ and Serap İNCAZ ……………………….……………………. 457

Remote Sensing Applications in Coastal Environment

Coastal regions are susceptible to rapid changes, as they constitute the boundary between the land and the sea. The resilience of a particular segment of coast depends on many factors, including climate change, sea-level changes, natural and technological hazards, extraction of natural resources, population growth, and tourism. Recent research highlights the strong capabilities for remote sensing applications to monitor, inventory, and analyze the coastal environment. This book contains 12 high-quality and innovative scientific papers that explore, evaluate, and implement the use of remote sensing sensors within both natural and built coastal environments