Oil-Holding Capacities and Removal Coefficients for Different Shoreline Types to Computer Simulate Spills in Coastal Waters

Abstract

Two components have been developed and integrated into a coastline oil spill simulation model: (1) an oil holding capacity for different shoreline types to represent the amount of oil that can be brought onto the shoreline, and (2) a removal coefficient to reflect the amount of oil that can be removed from a beach during a rising tide. The oil holding capacity changes with oil viscosity. The combination of these two factors, delineated for seven shoreline types and tied to chemical weathering and surf zone transport submodels, enables the basic prediction of oil motion and persistence within most marine environments.

Oil spill impact modeling: Development and validation

“…The fate of spilled oil that reaches the shoreline depends on characteristics of the oil, the type of shoreline, and the energy environment. The stranding algorithm is based on data and analysis of Gundlach [71] and Reed and Gundlach [72]. In SIMAP, deposition occurs when an oil spillet intersects shore surface and ceases when the volume‐holding capacity for the shore surface is reached.…”

Ecological Effectiveness of Oil Spill Countermeasures: How Clean is Clean?

“…Case history observations form the basis for discussions on factors determining the behaviour of oil on shores (e.g. [8][9][10][11][12][13][14]) and are also useful in the production of shore vulnerability or sensitivity indices such as that of Gundlach & Hayes [15] and others e.g. [16].…”

Towards improving the representation of beaching in oil spill models: A case study

“…After extensive literature review (Gundlach and Reed, 1986;Gundlach, 1987;Reed et al, 1989Reed et al, , 1999Lee et al, 2003;Owens and Lee, 2003;Johnson et al, 2005;Etkin et al, 2007 among others) and taking into consideration the points noted in Section 1, it was decided the improvement regarding oil concentration on coast to be based on Oil Holding Capacity (OHC), parametrized for different coast types. The detailed review of Etkin et al (2007) on oil-shoreline interaction and its simulation by oil spill models, suggests a combination of: (a) the Boufadel (2000) methodology (hydraulic oil-holding capacity model) for light oils, and (b) the SCAT (Shoreline Cleanup Assessment Team) methodology for medium-heavy oils.…”

“…A series of different methods to estimate OHC have been proposed over the years. Gundlach (1987) developed OHC and oil removal coefficients for different shoreline types, based on field data from the Amoco Cadiz, Ixtoc I and Urquiola spills. Owens and Teal (1990) proposed an organized set of activities for data collection after shoreline impact (see Section 2.3 for details), resulting in OHC estimates appropriate to be used as case-independent values in the absence of better data.…”

“…Owens and Teal (1990) proposed an organized set of activities for data collection after shoreline impact (see Section 2.3 for details), resulting in OHC estimates appropriate to be used as case-independent values in the absence of better data. Cheng et al (2000) proposed an empirical formula for the calculation of OHC, based on field data from Gundlach (1987) and Reed et al (1989), and the notion that the maximum loading expressed by OHC can be divided in a surface and a subsurface component. Humphrey et al (1993) suggested the calculation of OHC based on fundamental hydraulic modeling, proposing a formula including geometric properties of the beach (length, width, depth) and its effective porosity to represent the volume fraction that ''entraps'' oil.…”