Horizon Oil Spill Research Articles

DETECTION AND MAPPING OF FLOATING OIL EMULSIONS WITH SYNTHETIC APERTURE RADAR (SAR) IMAGERY

Detection of floating oil on the ocean surface, and particularly thick layers, is crucial for emergency response to accidental oil discharges. While detection of oil presence on the ocean surface is relatively easy under most conditions with a variety of remote sensing techniques, estimation of the thickness of oil layers is technically challenging. In this paper we use Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery collected during the DeepWater Horizon (DWH) oil spill and the Texture Classifier Neural Network Algorithm (TCNNA) to identify SAR image signatures that may correspond to regions of very thick emulsified oil. These locations were generally consistent with sea level observations and optical and thermal remote sensing instruments. Oil emulsions form after crude oil is discharged in the ocean and is subjected to weathering and coagulation processes that increase thicknesses of floating oil layers. The method of detection identifies regions of increased radar backscattering within larger regions of oil-covered water. Detection is dependent on SAR incident angles and the type of SAR beam mode configuration. L-band SAR was found to have the largest window of incidence angles (16 – 38o off-nadir) that could be used to detect oil emulsions. C-band SAR showed a narrower window (18 – 32o off-nadir) than L-band, while X-band SAR had the narrowest window (20 – 31o off-nadir). The results suggest that in case of future spills in the ocean, SAR data may be used to find locations of thick oil to help make management decisions.

Implications of the British petroleum oil spill disaster for its industry peers – evidence from the market reaction and earnings quality

As one of the worst environmental catastrophes in US history, the British Petroleum (BP) Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill have profound implications for the oil and gas industry. This study examines the stock market reaction and earnings quality of BP’s peers in response to the imminence of regulatory threats. Our empirical evidence indicates that a significantly negative intra-industry reaction occurred. In addition, petroleum companies with more extensive pre-disaster environmental disclosures experienced a less negative reaction. Finally, our analysis finds that petroleum companies tended to depress earnings via discretionary accruals post the BP oil spill. Our study is motivated by mounting attention to the increase in environmental risks and the need for enhancement in environmental accounting reporting requirements (The Securities and Exchange Commission 2010).

Distribution and concentrations of petroleum hydrocarbons associated with the BP/Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, Gulf of Mexico

We examined the geographic extent of petroleum hydrocarbon contamination in sediment, seawater, biota, and seafood during/after the BP/Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill (April 20–July 15, 2010; 28.736667°N, −88.386944°W). TPH, PAHs, and 12 compound classes were examined, particularly C1-benzo(a)anthracenes/chrysenes, C-2-/C-4-phenanthrenes/anthracenes, and C3-naphthalenes. Sediment TPH, PAHs, and all classes peaked near Pensacola, Florida, and Galveston, Texas. Seawater TPH peaked off Pensacola; all of the above classes peaked off the Mississippi River, Louisiana and Galveston. Biota TPH and PAHs peaked near the Mississippi River; C-3 napthalenes peaked near the spill site. Seafood TPH peaked near the spill site, with PAHs and all classes peaking near Pensacola. We recommend that oil concentrations continued to be monitored in these media well after the spill has ceased to assist in defining re-opening dates for fisheries; closures should be maintained until hydrocarbon levels are deemed within appropriate limits.

Children of the Spills - Phase II: The Gulf Coast and the BP/Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

Children of the Spills is an oral history project created to encourage people in “oiled communities” to share their childhood memories, stories, and artwork. This project strives to broaden public understanding of the damaging human effects of oil spills and to assist communities as they work to protect and support children growing up in post-disaster settings. Ultimately, this project explores the ways that dramatic changes to the surrounding environment shape young people and the places where they live. Children of the Spills was carried out in two phases. The first focused on collecting oral histories from adults in Alaska who were between the ages of 1-19 at the time of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill and were raised in communities affected by the disaster. The second engaged children and youth in the U.S. Gulf Coast states of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama who were impacted by the 2010 BP/Deepwater Horizon oil spill. This field report describes the Phase II work of the Children of the Spills project along the Gulf Coast.

Children of the Spills - Phase I: Alaska and the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill

Children of the Spills is an oral history project created to encourage people in “oiled communities” to share their childhood memories, stories, and artwork. This project strives to broaden public understanding of the damaging human effects of oil spills and to assist communities as they work to protect and support children growing up in post-disaster settings. Ultimately, this project explores the ways that dramatic changes to the surrounding environment shape young people and the places where they live. Children of the Spills was carried out in two phases. The first focused on collecting oral histories from adults in Alaska who were between the ages of 1-19 at the time of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill and were raised in communities affected by the disaster. The second engaged children and youth in the U.S. Gulf Coast states of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama who were impacted by the 2010 BP/Deepwater Horizon oil spill. This first field report describes the Phase I work of the Children of the Spills project in Alaska, while a second field report summarizes Phase II activities carried out along the Gulf Coast.

<em>Children of the Spills</em> - Phase I: Alaska and the <em>Exxon Valdez</em> Oil Spill

Children of the Spills is an oral history project created to encourage people in oiled to share their childhood memories, stories, and artwork. This project strives to broaden public understanding of the damaging human effects of oil spills and to assist communities as they work to protect and support children growing up in post-disaster settings. Ultimately, this project explores the ways that dramatic changes to the surrounding environment shape young people and the places where they live. Children of the Spills was carried out in two phases. The first focused on collecting oral histories from adults in Alaska who were between the ages of 1-19 at the time of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill and were raised in communities affected by the disaster. The second engaged children and youth in the U.S. Gulf Coast states of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama who were impacted by the 2010 BP/Deepwater Horizon oil spill. This first field report describes the Phase I work of the Children of the Spills project in Alaska, while a second field report summarizes Phase II activities carried out along the Gulf Coast.

Crisis in the Gulf of Mexico

As natural-technological catastrophes become increasingly complex in their severity, scale, and duration, so too must our policy responses. Utilizing the 2010 BP/Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico as a case study, this paper explores the ecological, sociocultural, and political challenges from an interdisciplinary perspective. Consistent with prior research on catastrophes, the findings of this study indicate that the severity of disruption substantially influences the social construction of the occasion as policy actors are ill equipped to handle the challenges at all levels of government. Drawing their interdisciplinary backgrounds in history, political science, sociology, anthropology, communications, and literary studies, the authors offer an integrative policy solutions approach predicated on a model of network governance.

Transparency and Business in International Law — Governance between Norm and Technique

This essay considers transparency and business in international law as a matter of the dynamic tension between norm and technique in the management of systems and the masses of the population they serve. It is divided into two parts. After this Introduction, Part II critically examines transparency in international and transnational regulatory and governance regimes. It considers both hard and soft law frameworks. Section II. A considers public sources of transparency regulation, concentrating on two: the OECD framework and the recently endorsed Guiding Principles of Business and Human Rights. Sections II.B through II.D examine transparency and governance beyond the state, considering (i) hybrid governance efforts represented by the ISO and Global Compact systems (Section II.B), (ii) private third party non-corporate governance regimes represented by the GRI and third-party certification programs (Section II.C), and (iii) private corporate governance transparency regimes (Section II.D). Part III then examines transparency in action. Part III.A explores environmental disclosure by BP before and after the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill of 2010. Section III.B examines Apple, Inc.’s transparency efforts in the context of managing the labor issues of its supply chains. Section III.C critically examines transparency as regulation and action within the framework developed in this Introduction, focusing particularly on the way in which the characteristics of transparency as norm, technique and property fundamentally shape both its character and the parameters within which reform is possible.

A new sensor for the assessment of personal exposure to volatile organic compounds

To improve our understanding of indoor and outdoor personal exposures to common environmental toxicants released into the environment, new technologies that can monitor and quantify the toxicants anytime anywhere are needed. This paper presents a wearable sensor to provide such capabilities. The sensor can communicate with a common smart phone and provides accurate measurement of volatile organic compound concentration at a personal level in real time, providing environmental toxicants data every three minutes. The sensor has high specificity and sensitivity to aromatic, alkyl, and chlorinated hydrocarbons with a resolution as low as 4 parts per billion (ppb), with a detection range of 4 ppb to 1000 ppm (parts per million). The sensor's performance was validated using Gas Chromatography and Selected Ion Flow Tube - Mass Spectrometry reference methods in a variety of environments and activities with overall accuracy higher than 81% (r(2) > 0.9). Field tests examined personal exposure in various scenarios including: indoor and outdoor environments, traffic exposure in different cities which vary from 0 to 50 ppmC (part-per-million carbon from hydrocarbons), and pollutants near the 2010 Deepwater Horizon's oil spill. These field tests not only validated the performance but also demonstrated unprecedented high temporal and spatial toxicant information provided by the new technology.

Transparency and Business in International Environmental Law

Transparency has been an important element in the construction of hard and soft law and norm regimes in the international sphere. This chapter considers transparency and business in international environmental law. It is divided into five sections. Section A considers conventional sources of international environmental law for its transparency effects, looking at both hard law and soft law frameworks. Section B examines other potentially applicable transparency rules, principally the recent efforts at transnational regulation of economic actors. It concentrates on two examples — the OECD framework and the recently endorsed Guiding Principles of Business and Human Rights. Section C examines transparency at the intersection of domestic and international law. It concentrates on the environmental transparency effects of extraterritoriality, of the incorporation of international norms within domestic legal orders, and the internationalization of domestic rule frameworks. Section D then considers transparency and governance beyond the state. For that purpose three distinct regimes are identified and examined. The first are hybrid governance efforts — the ISO and Global Compact systems. The second are private non-corporate governance regimes, principally the GRI and product certification programs. Third, private corporate governance transparency regimes are examined. The potential and tensions in transparency are examined more closely in the context of environmental disclosure by BP during the time of the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill of 2010, which also suggests both the possibilities and limits of domestic and international law, in its transparency aspects. The chapter ends with Section F’s consideration of miscommunication and coherence in moving toward the future of environmental transparency at the international sphere.

Reducing Risks and Losses in Coastal Cities: Planning, Practice and Sociotechnical Systems

One way to assess whether governments (at any level) learn from their disaster experience is to examine two similar events at different points in time. We investigate and compare the 1989 EXXON VALDEZ oil spill disaster with the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil platform and oil spill disaster to ascertain how governmental law and policy, implemented in an intergovernmental realm, has changed or advanced. One goal is to outline what coastal local government officials need to know to ensure sustainability of their jurisdictions in the face of hazard and disaster risk. The study recounts both incidents and recommends intergovernmental analysis informed by the theories of nested sets, distributed cognition, and socio-technical systems.