Oil pollution: human damages on hydraulic regime in sandy beach ecosystems

Abstract

Various anthropogenic pollutants ultimately threaten coastal areas. One of the most significant anthropogenic pollution is oil pollution. It is estimated that 1.7- 8.8 X 10⁶ tons of petroleum hydrocarbon are released into marine environment annually (Natural Research Council, 1985). Oil enters marine environment in many ways like natural seeps, refinery emission, ship cleaning operations and accidental spills. In particular, tanker accidents that may result in the release of relatively large amount of oils near sensitive coastal environments are of great concern. For example, the Amoco Cadiz discharged 0.2 X 10⁶ tons of Kuwait crude oil into the waters along the Brittany coast in March 1978; the Exxon Valdez released 0.04 X 10⁶ tons of Alaskan North Slope crude oil into Prince William Sound in March 1989. A part of the spilled oil into sea has drifted to the coastal area. About 30% of the Amoco Cadiz spilled oil contaminated 320 km of coastline. In case of the Exxon Valdez, about 50% of the spilled oil stranded on 2,000 km of shorelines along the Gulf of Alaska (Swannell et al., 1996; Wolfe et al., 1994; Vandermeulen et al., 1979).