In this study, a two-step oil spill forecasting system is developed. In the first step, once the volume and properties of the spilled oil were known, the initial oil spill area and the successive diffused area were estimated using empirical formulas. The oil slick trajectories were then determined using the vectorial summation of the velocity of the ocean current and 3% of the wind speed. A land-based X-band radar was temporarily deployed to obtain the local current velocities during the oil spill event. In the second step, according to the given current and wind fields, the Semi-implicit Cross-scale Hydroscience Integrated System Model (SCHISM) was applied to forecast the location and area of the oil spill.
Oil spill events in coastal areas, harbors, and rivers are usually caused by the grounding of ships and the oil pipeline cracks. Oil spills in coastal areas often have critical impacts on marine ecosystems and economic activity. Once oil is spilled, it undergoes various physical, chemical, and biological processes that begin to transform the oil in the ocean. In addition, oil characteristics, oceanic hydrodynamics, and meteorological and coastal environmental conditions affect the transport and fate of oil spill in coastal areas.
Preventing the impact of oil spills on coastal areas and the marine environment is the most critical concern in the world. Numerous medium (7-700 tons) and large (>700 tons) spills have been caused by tankers during each decade of 1970–2015 (ITOPF, 2016). Small and medium spills accounted for 95% of all the recorded incidents, and a large percentage of these spills, 40%, and 29%, respectively, were recorded during 1974–2015.
The East Asia shipping routes pass through Taiwan, and rapid economic development has enabled the development of Taiwan's foreign shipping industry. In particular, both exports and imports of oil products have increased because of the rapid development of Taiwan's petrochemical industry. However, this has led to an increased uncertainty in harbor environmental management. For example, the container ship TS Taipei split into two parts during a northeast monsoon weather after grounding one nautical mile off Shimen in northern Taiwan. The oil slick fouled more than 2 km of coastline, according to the Taiwan Environmental Protection Agency reports.
