A Proactive System for Oil Spills and Marine Environment Monitoring

Oil pollutions impact the environment, the economy and the quality of life for coastal inhabitants. The increasing importance of petroleum products and the list of oil spill events in last two decades raised the concern on maritime safety and environmental protection. Indeed, annually, on average 1,300,000 t of oil entered the oceans during the 1990s with tanker vessel spills accounting for 100,000 t, run-off 140,000 t, and pipeline leaks just 12,000 t. Aside from natural seeps, which contribute an estimated 600,000 t or ~45% of total emissions, other important sources include vessel operational discharges. For these reasons, there has been an increasing interest in frameworks for remotely detect oil spill at sea and several technological advances were made, especially under the propulsion of catastrophic events, like the Deep Water Horizon spill, during which several remote sensing technologies moved up to the technological readiness scale.