2. Outline
• Introduction
• What is oil spill?
• Source of oil spills
• oil spill impact
• Environmental effects
• Remote Sensing for Oil Spill Surveillance
3. Introduction
• Petroleum products play an important role in modern
society, particularly in the transportation, plastics, and
fertilizer industries.
• There are typically ten to fifteen transfers involved in
moving oil from the oil field to the final consumer.
• An oil spill may be due to a number of reasons, including
transportation accidents. In addition to accidents, the
controlled release of oil by shipping operators and oil
production platforms are major sources of oil spills.
• Environmental rules, regulations and strict operating
procedures have been imposed to prevent oil spills, but
these measures cannot completely eliminate the risk.
4. What are oil spills?
• An oil spill is the release of a liquid petroleum hydrocarbon into the
environment, especially marine areas, due to human activity, and is a form
of pollution. The term is usually applied to marine oil spills, where oil is
released into the ocean or coastal waters.
• Oil spills maybe due to release of crude oil, off shore platforms, drilling
rigs, and wells as well as spills of refined petroleum products. Cleanup of
oil spill is difficult and depends upon many factors. It may take weeks,
months or even years.
5. Source of oil spills
• oil spills may also occur on land. Oil spills may be due to releases of crude
oil from tankers, offshore platforms, drilling rigs and wells, as well as spills
of refined petroleum products (such as gasoline, diesel) and their by-
products, heavier fuels used by large ships such as bunker fuel, or the spill
of any oily refuse or waste oil.
6.
7. • Oil spills at sea are generally
much more damaging than
those on land, since they can
spread for hundreds of nautical
miles in a thin oil slick which
can cover beaches with a thin
coating of oil.
• These can kill seabirds,
mammals, shellfish and other
organisms they coat.
• Oil spills on land are more
readily containable if a
makeshift earth dam can be
rapidly bulldozed around the
spill site before most of the oil
escapes, and land animals can
avoid the oil more easily.
8. Major Effects of Oil Spills
Local industries
Human health
Marine ecosystem including animal and plant life
Vegetation & mangroves
Effect on marine life
Damage Beaches, Marshlands and Fragile Marine Ecosystems
9. Local industries
Devices used to catch
fish cannot be used
for fear of damaging
them in area that
have had an oil spill
10. Environmental effects
• spilled oil can affect animals and
plants in two ways: dirесt from
the oil and from the response or
cleanup process.
• Oil penetrates into the structure
of the plumage of birds and
the fur of mammals, reducing its
insulating ability, and making
them more vulnerable to
temperature fluctuations and
much less buoyant in the water.
11. Human impacts
• Inhalation of vapor, touching
oil slicks and consuming
contaminated sea food.
• Causes neurological, acute
toxic effects, ocular (eye) and
also problems of respiratory
system.
• Nausea, throat infections,
nose and eye irritations, etc.
along with migraines and
headaches.
12. Marine Ecosystem including animal and plant life
• Area effected i.e.
Estuaries/
foreshore.
• Proximity to
bird breeding
colony.
13. Vegetation
• Root areas of plants
may be harmful
• Living coral is also
vulnerable to oil slicks.
If the living coral dies,
then the reef of coral
can be destroyed by
wave erosion.
14. MANGROVES
• Salt tolerant tress and shrubs and
provide habitat for sea birds,
crabs, oysters, breeding ground
for birds
• Their complex root system
stabilizes and sediment,
preventing soil erosion
• They obtain oxygen through
lenticels on aerial roots, which
may become clogged and stop
oxygen supply
• There may be long term loss of
habitat
15. Marine species impact
• Impact to various food chains. With one break in the chain, the rest
of the chain could be impacted greatly.
• The actual number of mammal deaths due to the spill may be as
much as 50 times higher than the number of recovered carcasses
16. Remote Sensing for Oil Spill Surveillance
a)Visible Sensors
b) Infra-red Sensors
c) Ultraviolet Sensors
d) Radar
17. Sensors can provide the following information for oil spill planning
• The location and spread of an
oil spill over a large area
• The thickness distribution of
an oil spill to estimate the
quantity of spilled oil
• A classification of the oil type
in order to estimate
environmental damage and to
take appropriate response
activities
• Timely and valuable
information to assist in clean-
up operations
18. Accidents of oil spill
• Mumbai oil spill (Aug2010)
• Chennai oil spill (28 jan2017)
