A method for locating possible sources of oil pollution in the East Vietnam Sea.

Abstract

A method was proposed for locating possible sources of oil pollution in the East Vietnam Sea. The method includes two stages. The first stage is called the raw stage. In this stage, based on the history of oil pollution at the Vietnamese coast and oil pollution footprint detected by remote sensing technique, numerical computation of wind and flow field in the sea was carried out. With the obtained wind and flow fields, reversed analysis was carried out to have a raw determination of possible sources of oil pollution. The second stage is called the refined stage. In this stage, based on the results of the raw stage, the location of oil source was corrected by assuming different oil slick scenarios (locations of oil source, discharge amount and discharge time). Then, numerical computations were carried out again to determine the transport and weathering of oil after being discharged from the source. The oil slick scenario which best fit the history of oil pollution and oil slick footprint will be selected as the oil pollution source