The industry's recognized authority for design, engineering and application of equipment and services in the global ocean community
Issue link: http://sea-technology.epubxp.com/i/410801
www.sea-technology.com November 2014 / st 43 Centre (REMPEC) for the Mediterranean Sea has calculated more than 312,000 tons of oil spilled in the Mediterranean due to 545 accidents between August 1977 and the end of December 2010. However, discharges also come from oil platforms and intentional oil discharges into the sea, primar- ily from washing tanks and discharging ballast water, this being the largest source of human-caused marine oil pollu- tion. The Mediterranean Action Plan of the United Nations Environmental Program estimates that more than 100,000 to 150,000 tons of hydrocarbons spill in the Mediterranean Sea every year. The MEDESS-4MS Service In 2012, the three-year project named Mediterranean Decision Support System for Marine Safety (MEDESS-4MS) started to work on the implementation of an integrated op- erational multimodel oil spill drift prediction service. The service gathers well-established oil spill modeling systems, data from the EU Copernicus Marine Core Service and the associated national ocean forecasting systems, as well as operational information on response equipment, together with environmental and socioeconomic sensitivity maps. O il spills in marine areas have a signifcant impact on the quality of the environment, by affecting all aspects of marine ecosystems, health and economy. Pollution from hydrocarbons is one of the main causes of concern for the health of the marine ecosystem and humans. The consisten- cy of oil can cause surface contamination and smothering of marine biota. In addition, its chemical components can cause acute toxic effects and long-term cumulative impacts. In the case of large accidental spills, expensive cleanup op- erations and programs are required. Spills can have severe repercussions for fsheries and mariculture in the affected areas, but also on tourism; in the particular case of the Med- iterranean, visited annually by more than 306 million tour- ists, almost a third of the international arrivals in the world (980 million), the economic impacts would be devastating. Traditional shipping and oil transportation routes are more exposed than other areas to the impacts of oil-pol- luted discharges from tankers and other vessels. In the Mediterranean, though it represents less than 1 percent of the Earth's total marine surface, oil tanker traffc across this sea accounts for more than 20 percent of the global traf- fc. The Regional Marine Pollution Emergency Response Service in Support of Oil Spill Emergencies in the Mediterranean Web Portal for Interaction With Spill Operational Forecasting Systems By Alberto Ribotti • Dr. Michela De Dominicis • Aldo Francis Drago The fve oil spill numerical models used in the MEDESS-4MS Service.