Environmentally safe areas and routes in the Baltic proper using Eulerian tracers
2012 (English)In: Marine Pollution Bulletin, ISSN 0025-326X, E-ISSN 1879-3363, Vol. 64, no 7, p. 1375-1385Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
In recent years, the shipping of environmentally hazardous cargo has increased considerably in the Baltic proper. In this study, a large number of hypothetical oil spills with an idealized, passive tracer are simulated. From the tracer distributions, statistical measures are calculated to optimize the quantity of tracer from a spill that would stay at sea as long as possible. Increased time may permit action to be taken against the spill before the oil reaches environmentally vulnerable coastal zones. The statistical measures are used to calculate maritime routes with maximum probability that an oil spill will stay at sea as long as possible. Under these assumptions, ships should follow routes that are located south of Bornholm instead of the northern routes in use currently. Our results suggest that the location of the optimal maritime routes depends on the season, although interannual variability is too large to identify statistically significant changes. (c) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2012. Vol. 64, no 7, p. 1375-1385
Keywords [en]
Baltic sea, Numerical modeling, Oil spill, Eulerian tracer, Fairway design, Coastal protection
National Category
Oceanography, Hydrology and Water Resources
Research subject
Oceanography
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:smhi:diva-453DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2012.04.021ISI: 000307143000027PubMedID: 22658577OAI: oai:DiVA.org:smhi-453DiVA, id: diva2:806328
2015-04-202015-04-142020-05-19Bibliographically approved