Modes of Operation and Forcing in Oil Spill Modeling: State-of-Art, Deficiencies and Challenges

Abstract

Oil spills may have devastating effects on marine ecosystems, public health, the economy, and coastal communities. As a consequence, scientific literature contains various up-to-date, advanced oil spill predictive models, capable of simulating the trajectory and evolution of an oil slick generated by the accidental release from ships, hydrocarbon production, or other activities. To predict in near real time oil spill transport and fate with increased reliability, these models are usually coupled operationally to synoptic meteorological, hydrodynamic, and wave models. The present study reviews the available different met-ocean forcings that have been used in oil-spill modeling, simulating hypothetical or real oil spill scenarios, worldwide. Seven state-of-the-art oil-spill models are critically examined in terms of the met-ocean data used as forcing inputs in the simulation of twenty-three case studies. The results illustrate that most oil spill models are coupled to different resolution, forecasting meteorological and hydrodynamic models, posing, however, limited consideration in the forecasted wave field (expressed as the significant wave height, the wave period, and the Stokes drift) that may affect oil transport, especially at the coastal areas. Moreover, the majority of oil spill models lack any linkage to the background biogeochemical conditions; hence, limited consideration is given to processes such as oil biodegradation, photo-oxidation, and sedimentation. Future advancements in oil-spill modeling should be directed towards the full operational coupling with high-resolution atmospheric, hydrodynamic, wave, and biogeochemical models, improving our understanding of the relative impact of each physical and oil weathering process.

Satellite imagery in evaluating oil spill modelling scenarios for the Syrian oil spill crisis, summer 2021

“…Moreover, MET Norway makes use of its own, in-house, high-resolution ocean-circulation and meteorological models to produce operational oil-spill forecasts with OpenOil (Röhrs et al, 2018). The model does, however, allow coupling with forecasts of coarser resolution from CMEMS (Copernicus Marine Environmental Service), FVCOM, SHYFEM, CYCOFOS, HYCOM, and Norshelf for ocean state and hydrodynamics, as well as NOAA, ECMWF, and SKIRON wind fields, with netCDF and many other file formats (Keramea et al, 2023a).…”

Study on the Oil Spill Transport Behavior and Multifactorial Effects of the Lancang River Crossing Pipeline

“…The study on oil spills in waters began in the 1960s. With the long-term development of hydrodynamic modeling, oil spill modeling, and numerical methods, the observation of the physical behavior of oil spills in watersheds using numerical simulation has been widely applied [2,[10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19]. Zhen and Li et al [20] established a two-dimensional hydrodynamic model of Daya Bay in the South China Sea and studied the behavior and fate of oil spills in both clockwise and anticlockwise currents.…”

Numerical Model Test of Spilled Oil Transport Near the Korean Coasts Using Various Input Parametric Models

“…The parameters characterizing ocean currents are derived from hydrodynamic ocean-circulation models, providing water characteristics that affect the transport of spilled oil on the ocean surface (De Dominicis et al, 2016). The wind velocity and air properties can be assessed using meteorological models that can consider the oil evaporation of floating oil (Keramea et al, 2023). Wave models offer valuable information on wave parameters, including Stoke-drift fields, significant wave heights, and wave periods, which can influence the turbulent and vertical mixing process.…”