Strategic environmental sensitivity mapping for oil spill contingency planning in the Peruvian marine-coastal zone

Major oil spills can cause significant impacts on marine-coastal zones, particularly on areas with a high oil spill risk, which combine a high oil spill hazard-high likelihood of oil stranding at high concentrations, and a high environmental sensitivity-high concentration of highly sensitive ecological and socioeconomic resources. In this context, a straightforward multicriteria methodology is proposed to determine the second factor of the oil spill risk, namely the strategic environmental sensitivity (SES), in 68 sectors covering the entire Peruvian marine-coastal zone. The methodology comprised the weighted integration of physical, biological, and socioeconomic sensitivity indicators based on their relevance in surface marine oil spills and the Peruvian ecological and socioeconomic context. As a result, relative SES levels from very low to very high were assigned to the sectors. To demonstrate the SES applicability, an oil spill risk assessment at a screening level was performed in a selected sector with current oil production activities. The oil beaching likelihood of worst-case discharge scenarios modelled for January 2021 was used to determine an overall screening oil spill hazard level in the selected sector, while a matrix relating the SES and hazard determined the screening oil spill risk. The results can be used as a decision-support tool to enhance the oil spill contingency planning in Peru or be used in other relevant processes such as the integrated coastal zone management, the marine spatial planning, or the contingency planning of other liquid contaminants. In addition, the proposed methodologies can be adapted to different local and international contexts and scales

Report AtlantOS fitness to Oil spill products

Assessment of the observing system fitness for purpose for the hazard mappin

Numerical modeling of oil pollution in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea

This chapter presents a summary of major applications in numerical oil spill predictions for the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. Since the trilateral agreement between Cyprus, Egypt, and Israel back in 1997, under the framework of the subregional contingency plan for preparedness and response to major oil spill pollution incidents in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, several oil spill models have been implemented during real oil pollution accidents and after oil spills that were detected from satellite remote sensing SAR data. In addition, several projects cofinanced by the European Commission addressed particularly issues with oil spill modeling, taking the advantage of developments in operational oceanography, as well as collaboration with the Mediterranean Oceanographic Network for Global Ocean Observing System (MONGOOS), with the European Maritime Safety Agency CleanSeaNet (EMSA-CSN), and Regional Marine Pollution Emergency Response Centre for the Mediterranean Sea (REMPEC). Major oil pollution incidents in the Eastern Mediterranean and the oil spill modeling applications carried out are summarized in this work. Three well-established operational oil spill modeling systems – two of them characterized by different numerical tools MEDSLIK, MEDSLIK II, and the POSEIDON oil spill models – are described in terms of their applicability to real oil spill pollution events, the Lebanon oil pollution crisis in summer 2006, the case Costa Concordia accident, and the spill event associated with the collision of two cargo vessels in the North Aegean Sea in June 2009. Finally, an overview of the present-day capability of Eastern Mediterranean countries in oil spill modeling is provided in this chapter

Improving the response to operational pollution in the South Iberian coast A Super-Ensemble backtracking approach

Although for the general public marine oil pollution happens when an oil tanker sinks in the ocean or an accident occurs in an oil platform, most of the oil entering the world ocean does it along less obvious paths. This research work focus on operational spills. It provides a first indication of the uncertainty associated to backtracking simulations using solutions from several operational models available on the internet for the South Iberia region. The suitability of using a Super-Ensemble approach as a way of minimizing the uncertainty was also investigated. The methodology was validated using drifting buoys available for the region. Results show the advantages of using the Super-Ensemble while pointing out for the importance of the atmospheric forcing in this region due to its characteristic mesoscale activity. The absence of more trajectories sparse in time and geographic coverage was a limitation found

Integrating technologies for oil spill response in the SW Iberian coast

An operational oil spill modelling system developed for the SW Iberia Coast is used to investigate the relative importance of the different components and technologies integrating an oil spill monitoring and response structure. A backtrack of a CleanSeaNet oil detection in the region is used to demonstrate the concept. Taking advantage of regional operational products available, the system provides the necessary resolution to go from regional to coastal scales using a downscalling approach, while a multi-grid methodology allows the based oil spill model to span across model domains taking full advantage of the increasing resolution between the model grids. An extensive validation procedure using a multiplicity of sensors, with good spatial and temporal coverage, strengthens the operational system ability to accurately solve coastal scale processes. The model is validated using available trajectories from satellite-tracked drifters. Finally, a methodology is proposed to identifying potential origins for the CleanSeaNet oil detection, by combining model backtrack results with ship trajectories supplied by AIS was developed, including the error estimations found in the backtrack validation. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

The impact of Sea level rise in the guadiana estuary

Understanding the impact of sea level rise on coastal areas is crucial as a large percentage of the population live on the coast. This study uses computational tools to examine how two major consequences of sea level rise: salt intrusion and an increase in water volume affect the hydrodynamics and flooding areas of a major estuary in the Iberian Peninsula. A 2D numerical model created with the software MOHID was used to simulate the Guadiana Estuary in different scenarios of sea level rise combined with different freshwater flow rates considering varying tidal amplitudes. An increase in salinity was found in response to an increase in mean sea level in both high and low freshwater flow rates at all areas around the estuary. An increase in flooding areas around the estuary was also positively correlated with an increase in mean sea level. (C) 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.PIAAC-Algarve “Intermunicipal Plan forAdaptation to Climate Changes ofAlgarve”info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Towards a common oil spill risk assessment framework - Adapting ISO 31000 and addressing uncertainties

Oil spills are a transnational problem, and establishing a common standard methodology for Oil Spill Risk Assessments (OSRAs) is thus paramount in order to protect marine environments and coastal communities. In this study we firstly identified the strengths and weaknesses of the OSRAs carried out in various parts of the globe. We then searched for a generic and recognized standard, i.e. ISO 31000, in order to design a method to perform OSRAs in a scientific and standard way. The new framework was tested for the Lebanon oil spill that occurred in 2006 employing ensemble oil spill modeling to quantify the risks and uncertainties due to unknown spill characteristics. The application of the framework generated valuable visual instruments for the transparent communication of the risks, replacing the use of risk tolerance levels, and thus highlighting the priority areas to protect in case of an oil spill

IT-OSRA: applying ensemble simulations to estimate the oil spill risk associated to operational and accidental oil spills

Oil Spill Risk Assessments (OSRAs) are widely employed to support decision making regarding oil spill risks. This article adapts the ISO-compliant OSRA framework developed by Sepp Neves et al. (J Environ Manag 159:158-168, 2015) to estimate risks in a complex scenario where uncertainties related to the meteo-oceanographic conditions, where and how a spill could happen exist and the risk computation methodology is not yet well established (ensemble oil spill modeling). The improved method was applied to the Algarve coast, Portugal. Over 50,000 simulations were performed in 2 ensemble experiments to estimate the risks due to operational and accidental spill scenarios associated with maritime traffic. The level of risk was found to be important for both types of scenarios, with significant seasonal variations due to the the currents and waves variability. Higher frequency variability in the meteo-oceanographic variables were also found to contribute to the level of risk. The ensemble results show that the distribution of oil concentrations found on the coast is not Gaussian, opening up new fields of research on how to deal with oil spill risks and related uncertainties