Environmental Modeling & Assessment

, Volume 21, Issue 6, pp 721–730 | Cite as

The Role of Wind in Modeling of Oil Pollution Transport and Diffusion in the Persian Gulf

  • Smaeyl Hassanzadeh
  • Omid Hajrasouliha
  • Ali Rezaei Latifi
Article
First Online:
Received:
Accepted:
  • 207 Downloads

Abstract

The Persian Gulf ecosystem is facing a variety of stresses as a result of being located within the richest oil province in the world, which hosts more than 67 % of the world oil reserve. In this paper, the distribution of oil pollution on the surface layer of the Persian Gulf is predicted for the different months after the release, based on the Coupled Hydrodynamical Ecological model for Regional Shelf seas (COHERENS). An Eulerian model for the Persian Gulf is set up using the Cartesian coordinate in the horizontal direction, and the sigma coordinate in the vertical direction. Based on this model, our analysis and simulation results indicate that the winds lead to diffusion of the contaminant concentration in the direction of the Arabian coast from the initial position of the spill. The results of this study can be used to provide appropriate solutions for preventing oil from spreading further in the region.

Keywords

Oil pollution Wind COHERENS Persian gulf Numerical simulation Contaminant concentration 
This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access.

Notes

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the Physics Department of the University of Hormozgan and the University of Isfahan for their assistance and support.

References

  1. 1.
    Price, A. R. G., Sheppard, C. R. C., & Roberts, C. M. (1993). The Gulf: its biological setting. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 27, 9–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  2. 2.
    James, I. D. (2002). A review, modeling pollution dispersion, the ecosystem and water quality in coastal waters. Environmental Modelling and Software, 17, 363–385.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  3. 3.
    Elhakeem, A. A., Elshorbagy, W., & Chebbi, R. (2007). Oil spill simulation and validation in the Persian Gulf with special reference to the UAE coast. Water, Air, and Soil Pollution, 184, 243–254.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  4. 4.
    Lardner, R. W., Lehr, W. J., Fraga, R. J., & Sarhan, M. A. (1988). A model of residual currents and pollutant transport in the Gulf. Applied Mathematical Modelling, 12, 379–390.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  5. 5.
    Ning, L., Zhihua, M., & Qinghe, Z. (2009). The impact of physical processes on pollutant transport in Hangzhou Bay. Chinese Journal of Oceanology and Limnology, 27, 266–276.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  6. 6.
    Luyten, P.J., Jones, J.E., Proctor, R., Tabor, A, Tett, P and Wild-Allen, K., 1999. COHERENS—a coupled hydrodynamical-ecological model for regional and shelf seas: user documentation. MUMM Report, Management Unit of the Mathematical Models of the North Sea, Belgium, 911 pp.Google Scholar
  7. 7.
    Mesinger, F., Arakawa, A., 1976. Numerical methods used in atmospheric models. GARP Publ. Ser. 17 (1)Google Scholar
  8. 8.
    Hassanzadeh, S., Hosseinibalam, F., & Rezaei-Latifi, A. (2010). Numerical modeling of salinity variations due to wind and thermohaline forcing in the Persian Gulf. J Appl Math Modeling. doi: 10.1016/j.apm.2010.09.029.
  9. 9.
    Reynolds, R. M. (1993). Physical oceanography of the Gulf, strait of Hormuz, and the Gulf of Oman—results from the Mt Mitchell expedition. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 27, 35–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  10. 10.
    Luyten, P. J., Deleersnijder, E., Ozer, J., & Ruddick, K. J. (1996). Presentation of a family of turbulence closure models for stratified shallow water flows and preliminary application to the Rhine outflow region. Continental Shelf Research, 16, 101–130.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  11. 11.
    Hunter, J. R. (1983). Aspects of the dynamics of the residual circulation of the Persian Gulf,” coastal oceanography (pp. 31–42). New York: Plenum.Google Scholar
  12. 12.
    Kampf, J., & Sadrinasab, M. (2006). The circulation of the Persian Gulf: a numerical study. Ocean Science, 2, 27–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  13. 13.
    Al Rabeh, A. H. (1994). Estimating surface oil spill transport due to wind in the Gulf, technical note. Ocean Engineering, 21, 461–465.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  14. 14.
    Zhu, S. X., Ding, P. X., Shi, F. Y., & Zhu, J. R. (2001). Numerical study on residual current and its effect on mass transport in the Hangzhou Bay and Changjiang estuary II. Acta Oceanologica Sinica, 20, 1–12.Google Scholar
  15. 15.
    Perrone, T. J., 1979. Winter Shamal in the Persian Gulf, Naval Environmental Prediction Research Facility, Monterey DA, 79.Google Scholar
  16. 16.
    Thoppil, P. G., & Hogan, P. J. (2010). Persian gulf response to a wintertime shamal wind event. Deep sea research part 1, 57(8), 946–955.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  17. 17.
    Stewart, R.H., 2008. Introduction to physical oceanography, Department of Oceanography Texas A and M University.Google Scholar
  18. 18.
    Chao, S. Y., Kao, K. R., & Al-Hajri, K. R. (1992). A numerical investigation of circulation in the Gulf. Journal of Geophysics, 97, 11219–11236.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Copyright information

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016

Authors and Affiliations

  • Smaeyl Hassanzadeh
    • 1
  • Omid Hajrasouliha
    • 2
  • Ali Rezaei Latifi
    • 2
  1. 1.Physics Department, Faculty of SciencesUniversity of IsfahanIsfahanIran
  2. 2.Physics Department, Faculty of SciencesUniversity of HormozganBandar AbbasIran

Personalised recommendations