A Simulation-based Contingency Planning Tool for Offshore Oil Spill Response

Abstract

Session: (PS-03) Response The improvement of offshore oil spill responses efficiency to minimize economic and environmental impacts has become a major need worldwide. This paper presents an Oil Spill Simulation and Response Selection tool (OSSRS) for international applications that is designed to support spill response contingency planning by industry and government. This proposed tool combines the advantages of currently efficient oil spill tools (i.e., Response Options Calculator (ROC) and Incident Command System (ICS)) and upgrades the capabilities of spill simulation and response selection by integrating a new Agent-Based Modeling (ABM) software platform, scenarios of icy marine environment and a new optimization module developed by Northern Region Persistent Organic Pollution Control Laboratory (NRPOP Lab). The agent-based offshore oil spill simulation module has been developed to simulate the over-time changes of oil spill behaviors and characteristics as well as the actions of and interactions among individual devices and/or response centre. The simulation tool can consider an offshore spill with multiple slicks and multiple means of response techniques (e.g., booming, skimmers, dispersant, in-situ burning). The effects of oil weathering and characteristics include slick thickness, viscosity, remaining oil volume, affected area, temperature, ice cover, evaporation, dispersion, and emulsification, etc. The optimization module can provide contingency plans of response selections and resource allocation with a minimal demand of response sources. Response time, response cost, and environmental sensitivity and impacts are considered as three criteria for planning and decision making. A hypothetic case in the North Atlantic is applied to examine the efficiency of the proposed tool under an icy marine environment. Based on the result, OSSRS has a comparable capacity. The system has considerable scalability. The response capabilities and simulation modules can be adjusted according to needs. Requirements for levels of response competency may change over time or from different stakeholders. The proposed tool is a powerful and useful tool to help decision makers for oil spill responses by providing the optimal contingency plans under different requirements of criteria.