Hazard assessment of oil spills along the main shipping lane in the Red Sea

H. V. R. Mittal, Sabique Langodan, Peng Zhan, Shihan Li, Omar Knio, Ibrahim Hoteit

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

14 Scopus citations

Abstract

AbstractThis study investigates the risk from oil spills along the main shipping lane in the Red Sea based upon oil spill model trajectories forced by the outputs of validated high resolution regional met-ocean data. Following the intra-annual variations in the met-ocean conditions, the results are presented by classifying the basin into three regions: northern, central and southern Red Sea. The maximum distance traveled by the slick is presented for 1, 2, 5, 10, 14 and 20 days after the commencement of a spill. Different measures of hazard assessment in terms of the concentration of beached oil alongside the corresponding probability maps are also analyzed. The volume fractions of beached, dispersed and evaporated oil, 20 days after the commencement of a spill are quantified. The Red Sea general circulation is characterized by rich mesoscale eddies, which appear to be the most prevailing dynamics in oil transport in the basin. Two case events are analyzed to closely examine the effects of the mesoscale circulations on the fate of spilled oil. The results of this study provide a comprehensive assessment of oil spill hazards in the Red Sea, stemming its main shipping lane and identifies the areas at high risk that require timely mitigation strategies.
Original languageEnglish (US)
JournalScientific Reports
Volume11
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 23 2021

Bibliographical note

KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2021-08-25
Acknowledged KAUST grant number(s): OSR-CRG2018-3711, REP/1/3268-01-01
Acknowledgements: The work was funded by the Office of Sponsored Research (OSR) at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) under the Virtual Red Sea Initiative (Award No. REP/1/3268-01-01), the Competitive Research Grant (Award No. OSR-CRG2018-3711), and the Saudi Aramco Marine Environmental Research Center at KAUST (SAMERK). The simulations were performed on the KAUST supercomputing facility, SHAHEEN.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General

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