Oil spills in coastal zones : environmental impacts and practical mitigating solutions

Abstract

A computational structure that has been developed to forecast the time-space evolution of oil spills in marine environments is presented. This structure was developed considering widely used mathematica formulations for oil spreading and weathering processes. A Eulerian transport model, that uses hydrodynamic results obtained with a two-dimensional and a quasi three-dimensional hydrodynamic model, was used to predict the oil slick transport and spread. General characteristics of the computational structure and the results of its application to a real case study - the “Cercal” accident in October 1994 - are presented. Georeferenced data are processed via a Geographical Information System tool. Data on the N/T “Prestige” oil spill processed by means of this information system and simulation results are also included.