Oil spill risk assessment study for Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India

Abstract

An oil spill is the release of liquid petroleum hydrocarbons into the environment, especially in the marine ecosystem due to human activity, and is a form of pollution. This paper deals with study of risk assessment in case of oil spill in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India. The Strait of Malacca is one of the busiest sea routes for super tankers that connects Andaman Sea (Indian Ocean) and South China Sea (Pacific Ocean). It has a huge potential for collision, grounding, and oil spill, which may cause harmful effects on the diverse flora and fauna of the islands. In this paper, various oil spill scenarios with different data sets based on seasonal variation, oil types, wind and current circulation pattern were modeled using GNOME (General NOAA Operational Modeling Environment) and the model outcomes are presented and discussed.