Abstract
The Suez Canal, being a main international maritime shipping route, experiences heavy ship traffic with probable illegal oil discharges. Oil pollution is harming the marine ecosystem and creates pressure on the coastal socio-economic activities particularly at Port Said city (the area of study). It is anticipated that the damage of oil spills is not only during the event but it extends for a long time and normally requires more effort to remediate and recover the environment. Hence, early detection and volume estimation of these spills is the first and most important step for a successful clean-up operation. This study is the first to use Sentinel-1 space-borne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images for oil spill detection and mapping over the north entrance of the Suez Canal aiming to enable operational monitoring. SAR sensors are able to capture images day and night and are not affected by weather conditions. In addition, they have a wide swath that covers large geographical areas for possible oil spills. The present study examines a large amount of data (800 scenes of sentinel 1) for the study area over a period of five years from 2014 till 2019 which resulted in the detection of more than 20 events of oil pollution. The detection model is based on the quantitative analysis of the dark spot of the radar backscatter of oil spills. The largest case covered nearly 26 km2 of seawater. The spill drift direction in the area of spills indicated potential hazard on fishing activities, Port Said beaches and ports. This study can be the base for continuously monitoring and alarming pollution cases in the Canal area which is important for environmental agencies, decision-makers, and beneficiaries for coastal and marine socio-economic sustainability.
Highlights
Oil pollution is frequently seen in the marine environment and is mainly related to the main shipping routes [1]
This study aims at mapping oil spill events that occurred in the target area during the past five years using Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) technology and providing a robust model to detect
The outcomes of the initial visual exploration identified nearly 70 scenes highly suspected for probable oil spills
Summary
Oil pollution is frequently seen in the marine environment and is mainly related to the main shipping routes [1]. An amount of about 457,000 tons of oil has been estimated to be released into the ocean yearly only by navigation ships [2]. Of the observed oil pollution in the oceans, discharged fuels represent 48% while crude oils represent 29%; and only 5% comes from tanker accidents annually [3]. Oil spill pollution is considered a developmental constraint and socio-economic problem as it affects the marine ecosystem, economy, and human food chain [4]. It is reported that impacts of oil pollution can last for decades and even small spills can spread over a very large aerial coverage
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