Oil Spill in the Southern Marine Regions of Vietnam: Models and Simulations

Abstract

The marine economy plays a vital role in the era of economic development in Vietnam. However, it also causes various incidents for natural resources and the environment among which oil spills have caused significant environmental and ecological harms. Therefore, rapid forecast of the oil spreading process is an important and decisive supporting factor the response and ecological hazard mitigation. By integrating the Euler-Lagrange method into the 3-D hydrodynamic model-based finite element method, we build a model that simulate the spread of oil spills with scenarios occurring in different hydrometeorological conditions in the southern waters of Vietnam. The model describes the horizontal composition to reflect the preservation of heat and salt of the tangled current dynamics, and the mixing distance. Dirichlet boundary conditions are derived from tidal oscillations at the open boundary nodes, the sliding stress at the bottom and the air temperature at the surface. The case study of oil spill was taken from the collision of the Lisa Auerbach with the My An 1 ship in Ba Ria - Vung Tau sea, and this ship containing 40 tons of oil on September 14, 2021, being a severe environmental risk. Simulation results of oil spread showed oil spills had affected ecosystems of mangroves and wetlands in the Mekong Delta.