Modeling marine oil spill trajectory and fate off Hurghada, Red Sea coast, Egypt | ||
| Egyptian Journal of Aquatic Biology and Fisheries | ||
| Article 4, Volume 26, Issue 6, November and December 2022, Pages 41-61 PDF (1.43 M) | ||
| Document Type: Original Article | ||
| DOI: 10.21608/ejabf.2022.269676 | ||
| Authors | ||
| Ibrahem M. Abdallah; Valery YU. Chantsev | ||
| Abstract | ||
| The Russian-Ukrainian conflict has diverted European nations from purchasing Russian oil and correspondingly increased the demand from Arab Gulf countries, increasing the number of tankers transporting oil via the Gulf of Suez and the Suez Canal. Therefore, the shipping route is vulnerable to oil seepage accidents, affecting Egyptian tourist cities like Hurghada. Thus, the purpose of this study was to determine the most susceptible zones to contamination and calculate affecting processes (evaporation, natural dispersion, and emulsification) that may occur as a result of crude oil spill accidents in the strait of Gubal northern of Hurghada using the General National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Operational Oil Modeling Environment (GNOME) and Automated Data Inquiry for Oil Spills (ADIOS2) models. For this purpose, two scenarios were simulated in February and August 2021 of 1000 metric tons of Arabian light crude oil. The trajectory maps highlighted that the northern Red Sea islands (Ashrafie, Small Gubal, Geisum, Tawila, Shadwan, and Gifton), which have enormous economic and strategic significance are the most vulnerable areas to pollution. In addition, the estimated results demonstrated that the movement of the spilled oil is affected by the prevailing wind direction and marine currents. The ADIOS2 model results showed that more than a quarter of the amount of the light crude oil was evaporated. At the same time, the percentage of natural dispersion increased slowly and did not exceed 1.3% in both scenarios. Furthermore, the emulsion's water content increased rapidly to 90% by the end of the simulation, with obvious shrinkage in the surface volume of the spill body including the emulsion with time. Therefore, oil spill responders could use this study as a reference or guide to inform the systematic environmental conservation planning process near Hurghada coasts. | ||
| Keywords | ||
| GNOME model; ADIOS2 model; Oil spill; Modeling; Oil trajectory; Hurghada; Northern Red Sea islands | ||
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