OIL SPILL DETECTION AND MONITORING OF ABU DHABI COASTAL ZONE USING KOMPSAT-5 SAR IMAGERY

Abstract. Abu Dhabi Government endorsed vision for its Maritime Strategy ‘A safe, secure and sustainable maritime domain for Abu Dhabi'. This research study share this vision using the concept of monitoring as tool for marine protection against any possible oil pollution. The best technology to detect and monitor oil pollution and in particularly oil spill is SAR imagery In this case study we chose KOMPSAT-5 SAR.

KOMPSAT-5 carries X-band SAR for earth observation, and is capable of day-and-night imaging under all weather condition. It provides three operation modes: High Resolution Mode to provide 1 m resolution, Standard Mode to provide 3 m resolution and Wide Swath Mode to provide 20 m resolution with 100 km swath at 550 km altitude, with four modes of polarization. KOMPSAT-5 provides products for various applications; security and defense, mapping, and natural resource management, environmental monitoring, disaster monitoring and more. For our case study we chose to work with Wide Swath mode (WS) with Vertical polarization (VV) to cover a wide area of interest located to the north west of Abu Dhabi including some important islands like ”Zirku Island”, and areas with oil production activities.

The results of data acquired on 4^th May 2015 show some spot of oil spill with length estimated about 3 KM, and the daily satellite data acquisition over the period July 24 through July 31 shows serious and many oil spill events some are small, but many others are considered to be big with area size around 20 km².

In the context of oil spill pollution in the seas, we have to consider the development and increase of overseas transportation, which is an important factor for both social and economic sectors. The harmful effects of marine pollution are numerous, from the damage of marine life to the damage of the aquatic ecosystem as whole. As such, the need for oil slick detection is crucial, for the location of polluted areas and to evaluate slick drift to protect the coastline. Satellite-based oil spill monitoring system now can be used to take precautions and even to determine the possible polluter; it has a vital importance on the detection and protection of national and international waters from the possible damages of petroleum hazard. Finally, and as we suggested in previous studies, we recommend to the national authorities to establish a national near-real time oil spill monitoring system based on SAR satellite imagery, with the support of other tools like AIS and navigation radars