OILPARI—A Real-Time Oil Transport Simulator for Marine Disaster Response: Its Functionary, Update, and Progress Toward the Next Generation

Abstract

We developed a numerical simulation model called “OILPARI” to predict the transport of spilled oil on sea surfaces. Two types of OILPARI simulation systems were constructed: a stand-alone type (sa-OILPARI) improved as described herein and a web application type (net-OILPARI) developed in this study. As the ocean current and wind datasets have been improved to high-resolution datasets, sa-OILPARI must be improved to accommodate them. As another improvement, a past analysis mode is added to understand the oil transport trends according to the season and sea area and to perform calculations to reproduce past oil spill incidents. Significantly, in net-OILPARI, a client does not need to prepare any special software and can use the functionality by simply accessing a URL from a browser. The application provides an intuitive single-page graphical user interface. OILPARIs have been applied to many oil spill incidents in the past. Case studies are presented for an oil spill incident off the coast of Hachinohe, Japan, in August 2021 and a pumice stone (floating stone) transport simulation occurring in the Pacific Ocean in 2021.