GIS, Effective Support For Oil-Spill Contingency Planning
Authors: Biniwale Shripad Suhas 
Published: December 2007

This universe is on the threshold - Whether to survive or diminish on account of pollution and imbalances which are created by people themselves. There is threat to ecology on account of all pollutions. For all of the benefits oil has brought to modern society, risk is inherent. Protecting the environment while producing, transporting, refining and marketing fuel is a challenge the petroleum industry must meet every day.

Oil spill cleanup is an expensive operation. Conventional processes for monitoring oil spills are tedious, inexact, and time consuming. GIS offers a solution to this problem by providing analysis and visualization capabilities.

A geographic information system (GIS) is useful in responding to oil spills because it can integrate a large amount of marine, coastal, and oil production/transportation data. The key to making use of the GIS is collecting and maintaining critical data, such as wind speed, wind direction, ocean current direction, density, and pH in data bases, so that it is available in case of a spill. Once spill has occurred; these pre-existing data-bases are queried, and the vector maps are analyzed to see what the major concerns are.

This paper envisages our model for an offshore field along the east coast of India. Using GeoMedia Professional for analysis in this fragile environment with unpredictable climatic conditions, we process available data - physical parameters and chemical parameters - to predict the extent and location of a spread.

This methodology in general may be useful to predict oil spill movement of any coastal region. This capability enables us to prepare for oil spills and respond more quickly, thereby minimizing the damage to the environment. Thus GIS can be used as an excellent decision-support tool for contingency planning, risk assessment, and remedial operations.

Introduction:

Protecting the environment while producing, transporting, refining and marketing fuel is a challenge the petroleum industry must meet every day. For all of the benefits oil has brought to modern society, risk is inherent in taking it from the Earth - in drilling wells, storing fuel for future use and transporting it from place to place.

We have an obligation to protect nature from accidental oil spills from our operations that can damage an ecosystem. The petroleum industry is working closely with government agencies, universities and research centers to reduce the frequency and impact of oil spills.

Oil spills can cause serious threats in marine environments as well as result in significant environmental damages in highly sensitive areas. Severity of impact of an oil spill depends on variety of factors, including characteristics of oil itself. Even large spills of refined petroleum products such as gasoline evaporate quickly and cause only short-term environmental effects. On the other hand heavy crude's and water in oil mixtures may cause widespread and long lasting physical contamination of shorelines. But, the overall effects of this oil spills can be reduced through proper pre-spill planning.