Acta Adriatica, Vol. 56 No. 2, 2015.
Original scientific paper
Oil spills distribution in the Middle and Southern Adriatic Sea as a result of intensive ship traffic
Mira Morović
orcid.org/0000-0002-1716-4808
; Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries, Split, Croatia
Andrei Ivanov
; P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
Marinko Oluić
; Geo-sat, Zagreb, Croatia
Žarko Kovač
; Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries, Split, Croatia
Nadezda Terleeva
; P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
Abstract
Oil slick detection by synthetic aperture radars (SAR) is a proven and commonly used operational technique, which showed that the seas of the Mediterranean are often polluted by oil and oily products. For the period 2003-2011, the Envisat and Radarsat-1 SAR images were available for analysis, thanks to the several projects. About 300 SAR images have been analysed over the Middle and Southern Adriatic Sea, in order to detect marine oil spills and other phenomena causing similar signatures. Analysing many oil spills detected in the Adriatic Sea, their sizes were determined between 0.1 km2 and 108 km2. Most of the spills were located along the main shipping routes, especially in the ship corridor along the Adriatic Sea axis. They were, most probably deliberate slicks released from ships during transportation or fishing operations, while suspected source of the largest spills is tank washing or illegal discharges.
Keywords
Adriatic Sea; oil pollution; oil spills; SAR Images; geo-information approach
Hrčak ID:
152236
URI
Publication date:
15.12.2015.
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