Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill was a man-made disaster which had devastating effects on its surrounding environment, in particular the natural environment around the Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig. Recovery efforts made by the local governments utilized Information Communications Technology (ICT) such as remote sensors and satellite imagery to track and monitor the magnitude of the oil spill. Further detail on how recovery efforts used ICT's to track and monitor the oil spill as well as its uses in the prevention of future oil spills, including the positives and negatives of the use of ICT will be discussed. Referring to sources such as the scholarly journal ‘Tracking Oil Slicks and Predicting their Trajectories Using Remote Sensors and Models', the magazine article ‘Satellite use Growing to Monitor Facilities and Map Spills' and the national commission report ‘Deep Water: The Gulf Oil Disaster and the Future of Offshore Drilling National Commission'. The focus reading ‘Organisations Aiming to Reduce Risk – Worth Broader Exposure' will be used as a comparison and reference to what other industries have done to prevent disasters in their industry from occurring again. Background. Recovery efforts during the Deep Water Oil Spill used Information Communication Technologies (ICT) such as remote sensor technology and satellite imagery technology. Such technology were used in order to monitor the magnitude of the oil spill giving recovery efforts visual data that they could work with as well as a method of being able to obtain the trajectories of the oil spill in order to prevent further spread of the oil in the water. Use of ICT's to assist in Recovery. The use of ICT's such as remote sensor technology and satellite imagery was effectively used by the petroleum industry in previous years prior to the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill for exploration purposes. In the event of the oil spill recovery effort teams utilized this same remote sensor technology in order to determine how much oil was spilled, where it reached the shore, and which beaches might be hit next (Pope 2010). This technology allowed recovery teams to effectively survey the spread of oil a lot faster than if it were done through surveillance aircraft such as drones, satellite technology. In the event of the oil spill BP and the federal government utilized two types of satellites. SAR imagery satellites in order to cover large areas and determine the scope of the damage caused. Once the scope of the damage was determined, high-resolution satellites were used to make thorough assessments of the damage. Although satellite imagery we're predominantly used as methods of surveying the wreckage and spill, aircraft drones also played important roles in that they allowed recovery teams to monitor the wreckage from different angles and views. Use of ICT's in the prevention of disasters. Information Communications Technology has multiple uses in that it was able to explore and locate possible petroleum production locations through remote operated vehicles (ROV) attached with thermal imaging cameras and sensors, as well as survey the structural damage of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil rig through the use of satellite imagery and drone aircraft. It now has the task of surveying and monitoring oil rigs on a frequent weekly or even daily basis. The oil production industry using satellites similarly to how they were used in the in recovery efforts through, obtaining a wide view of the area through SAR satellite imagery and using high-resolution imagery in order to gain a detailed perspective of specific locations and aspects of oil rigs. The National Commission recommended improvements be made by the petroleum production industry as well as the national government in order to effectively plan for a large scale containment plan if another event like this we're to happen again, including coordinating with other government bodies and obtaining relevant information in regards to response measures. Measures taken into account include things like and sufficient amount of technical experts on the within the staff of the oil rigs in order to develop and approve response plans as well as providing mandatory funding to the petroleum production industry for research and development as well as incentives to the industry to perform research and development. Â   Similarly in the nuclear tragedy of Chernobyl the government funded the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (IPNO) programs to perform evaluations, training, assistance and peer reviews by experts. The uses of ICT such as computer programs and hardware are now used to analyse nuclear structures, making it easy to monitor and spot redundancies within the structure and prevent structural failure of the plants. Positives and Negatives of the uses of ICTs The use of ICT's during recovery efforts as well as use in the monitoring of oil rigging sites and prevention of structural failure. The use of ICT's over other methods such as aircraft surveillance has positive benefits which far out weight the negatives. Such satellite imagery can allow recovery teams to effectively and quickly survey the a large portion of the damage site through SAR satellites and gain detailed views of specific areas such as leaks, slicks and seeps through high-resolution satellites. With the use of satellites in combined with aircraft surveillance to gain views from different angles to view specific areas of the structure effectively allow recovery teams to survey and gather information in order to develop an effective containment and recovery plan. The use of ROVs also is a benefit as it allows recovery teams to survey the structure underwater and effectively gather information from places that would be too dangerous for humans to do to. Although ICT's do have their benefits, they also come with negatives as in that SAR satellites capture large views of the affected areas, this comes at a price of decreased resolution making it difficult to view smaller aspects of the image such as leaks in the oil pipe structure. This requires the use of high resolution imaging satellites which are rather costly and cannot be frequently called up due to its high cost. Conclusion The use of information communications technology in the petroleum production industry has had multiple uses before, during and after the Deepwater Horizon Oil spill. Before the disaster of the oil spill the industry used ICTs for exploration and location of possible drilling sites. With the use of satellite technology during the recovery efforts to survey the area and effectively develop a containment plan for preventing the oil from spreading and affecting the nearby beaches. Also in future prevention of possible oil spills through satellite monitoring of oil rigs and tankers. Along with the use of ICTs come the benefits which include allowing recovery teams to quickly and safely gather information which would have been difficult with old technology, but there were also costs in that it would cost large amounts of money in order to use high-end technology such as high-resolution satellites in order to gain clearer images of specific areas. Along with the uses of ICTs to help prevent future oil spills are the recommendations of the oil spill commission which recommended funding for research and development of oil spill prevention similarly to how the government funded the development of the INPO in the nuclear energy industry for training of nuclear engineers and evaluation of nuclear structures.