Decision Support System for Managing Oil Spill Events IPHIGENIA KERAMITSOGLOU* CONSTANTINOS CARTALIS Remote Sensing and Image Processing Team Department of Applied Physics University of Athens Panepistimioupolis, Build. PHYS-V Athens, GR-157 84, Greece PAVLOS KASSOMENOS Laboratory of Meteorology Department of Physics University of Ioannina University Campus Ioannina, GR-45110, Greece ABSTRACT / The Mediterranean environment is exposed to various hazards, including oil spills, forest fires, and floods, making the development of a decision support system (DSS) for emergency management an objective of utmost impor- tance. The present work presents a complete DSS for manag- ing marine pollution events caused by oil spills. The system provides all the necessary tools for early detection of oil-spills from satellite images, monitoring of their evolution, estimation of the accident consequences and provision of support to responsible Public Authorities during clean-up operations. The heart of the system is an image processing– geographic infor- mation system and other assistant individual software tools that perform oil spill evolution simulation and all other neces- sary numerical calculations as well as cartographic and report- ing tasks related to a specific management of the oil spill event. The cartographic information is derived from the extant general maps representing detailed information concerning several regional environmental and land-cover characteristics as well as financial activities of the application area. Early noti- fication of the authorities with up-to-date accurate information on the position and evolution of the oil spill, combined with the detailed coastal maps, is of paramount importance for emer- gency assessment and effective clean-up operations that would prevent environmental hazard. An application was de- veloped for the Region of Crete, an area particularly vulnerable to oil spills due to its location, ecological characteristics, and local economic activities. Environmental protection is currently an important subject of increasing public concern and, as a result, particular attention is being paid to serious environ- mental damage caused by the creation of hydrocarbon compounds spills over the sea surface that are created as a result of oil-tanker accidents (grounding or ship collisions) or illegal cleaning of tankers. These situa- tions, however, are not the only maritime-related activ- ities that may result in oil spills. Other activities include accidents during loading and unloading of bunker or crude oil; discharge of bilge water, oily wastewater, and ballast water, and rupture of land-based oil storage facilities. The Mediterranean Sea is a well-frequented sea route allowing access to southern Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and the Black Sea. The result of this extensive marine traffic is a high risk of oil pollution, both intentional and accidental. In addition to the obvious ecological risks associated with such pollution in a closed sea area, it is in the interest of all nations bordering the Mediterranean to protect their coastal zones as tourism and fishing play an important eco- nomic role and both can be seriously affected by mar- itime pollution. It is estimated that around 330,000 tons of oil are deliberately and illegally dumped in the Med- iterranean Coastal Zone each year. Other figures indi- cate that there may be as much as 1,000,000 tons dumped each year, perhaps demonstrating that too little is known about the full extent of the pollution problem in the Mediterranean, a problem that Earth Observation may be in a position to solve (Theophilo- poulos and others 1996). A successful operation to combat a marine oil spill is dependent on a rapid response from the time the oil spill is detected. In fact, the concept of oil spill contin- gency planning refers to several activities for creating an immediate response program. Studies have already been reported on oil spill contingency planning (e.g., Reed and others 1995) recognizing the importance of oil spill detection and surveillance as well as assessment and evaluation, spill evolution computer simulation, management, and cleanup. Depending on the exact KEY WORDS: Oil spills; Decision support system; Remote sensing; SAR imagery; Protected zones Published online September 17, 2003. *Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. DOI: 10.1007/s00267-003-2969-7 Environmental Management Vol. 32, No. 2, pp. 290 –298 © 2003 Springer-Verlag New York Inc.