APPLICATION OF A GIS BASED APPROACH TO ASSESS THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF THE MV WAKASHIO OIL SPILL IN THE SOUTHEAST OF MAURITIUS

Abstract

Marine oil spills are regarded as one of the most threatening environmental disasters that can have serious environmental and socio-economic impacts. For islands like Mauritius, such oil spills can have severe repercussions as island communities depend almost entirely on their coastal and marine resources. The MV Wakashio grounded on the coral reef on the south east coast of Mauritius on July 25th 2020, spilling 1000 tons of oil into its clear waters on August 06th 2020. It was the first time the island was faced with such a disaster and in this respect, this study aimed to use a GIS based approach to assess the environmental impacts of the Wakashio oil spill and demonstrate its usefulness in monitoring marine oil spills. SAR imagery was acquired from the Copernicus Platform and ArcGIS was used to process the images. An oil spill map was created using a SAR image dated August 10th 2020. GPS coordinates of the affected sites were recorded and overlaid on a terrain/road network map of Mauritius generated from layers of vector data obtained through the DIVA-GIS portal. The oil spill was mapped on the satellite image using ArcGIS and a vector map of the affected regions was created. From these maps, the short and long term impacts on the environments (marine waters, mangroves, coasts, biodiversity) were examined. This study concludes that GIS is an effective, inexpensive tool that coastal nations around the world, including Mauritius, can use to support management and decision making regarding oil spill preparedness and monitoring as well as disaster management