Thousands of oil spills occur in US waters every year. Though some spills are smaller than others, they all damage the environment and pose serious health and safety risks for humans and animals alike.
Luckily, we’re seeing the frequency and impact of large oil spills from tankers go down over the last few decades. That’s partly the result of new technologies like drones. Drones can help respond to, manage, and mitigate the impact of oil spills like no technology could before.
In this article, we’ll go over the importance of oil spill management teams, the benefits of adopting drones in oil spill response, and the future of drones in the industry.
Let’s get started!
Table of Contents
The Importance of Oil Spill Management Teams
Oil spills are devastating to the environment and the economy. They can kill wildlife and contaminate our drinking water and seafood. And they can also lead to major economic downturns from the loss of oil. After all, fossil fuels supply 84% of the world’s energy.
In a Spill of National Significance (SONS), both the environmental and the economic effects of an oil spill will be felt decades later.
That’s why it’s important to have spill management teams (SMTs). They are trained to clean up oil spills of all sorts. Here’s what a typical SMT clean-up workflow looks like:
- Assess shoreline conditions via the Shoreline Cleanup Assessment Technique (SCAT).
- Segment the beach into different sections.
- Decide how best to access areas that need to be cleaned and what tools to use.
- Execute clean-up operation.
- Report results to various stakeholders.
In the US, the Coast Guard usually cleans up oil spills in cooperation with the company responsible, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and other oil spill response contractors.
A Valuable Eye in the Sky
In the last few years, many contractor oil spill response organizations (OSROs) have started to implement drones. Drones can deploy quickly and get on the scene to provide a valuable “eye in the sky.”
In a 2019 case study by drone manufacturer Wingtra, a drone was used to respond to an oil spill along the world’s largest raised coral atoll off the Solomon Islands. The drone photographed 3.1 miles (5 km) of shoreline.
With the help of advanced software, the drone photos were then stitched together to create a large map called an orthomosaic. That way, responders had a visual of current conditions and could identify priority areas to address first. The map also had geo-tagged location information to make it easier for responders to know where to go.
However, case studies like this are just the beginning. Drones can also provide real-time monitoring of oil spill response efforts. For example, they can help assess how well dispersants are working at breaking down the oil sheen. And they can direct response vessels carrying containment equipment like booms and dispersants.
“Real-time transmission of videos and GPS coordinates can be incredibly helpful to identify the exact location of a spill so that other vessels with spill containment equipment – such as booms and dispersants – can be directed to the incident location”
- Siva Keresnasami, Operations Director at Terra Drone Angola
The Benefits of Drones for Oil Spill Response
So what exactly are the benefits of using drones over traditional oil spill response methods? Let’s go over them:
Faster Deployment
When an oil spill happens, response time is everything. The longer you wait, the further the oil will spread and the more damage it will do. So it’s important to get to the scene as quickly as possible.
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), can deploy at a moment’s notice and respond much faster compared to manned aircraft. Drones can be on standby 24/7, working even when it’s dark. This makes them incredibly useful in oil spill response situations, where every second counts.
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Reduced Health & Safety Risks
Using drones limits the amount of health and safety risks that response crews have to take on. For example, drones can monitor rocky beaches and other dangerous areas of an oil spill so that human responders don’t have to.
Drones can also help in search and rescue missions by spotting people in distress and sharing their GPS location with human rescuers.
Video Credit: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Accurate Damage Assessments
Drones can help assess oil damage to coastlines, tankers, and response equipment. For example, they can identify, measure, and map oil buildup on coastlines, especially those inaccessible by foot. Or they can assess damage to skimmers and booms used to clean up and contain an oil spill.
Thanks to high-quality camera and sensor payloads, drones can accurately pinpoint where an oil spill started. This helps response teams create oil spread trajectory maps so they can make important real-time decisions. And with the help of aerial before-and-after maps, response teams can better gauge overall damage.
Better Communication
Drones also facilitate better communication. They can share live footage of an oil spill’s condition with response teams and stakeholders so everyone is on the same page.
They can also upload oil spill footage to the cloud, where it can be gathered and used for media communications to reassure the public.
The Future of Drones for Oil Spill Management
The benefits of using drones in oil spill response are undeniable. No doubt, we’ll continue to see widespread adoption of drones in oil spill management just like we’ve seen across the construction and infrastructure industries.
As drones integrate with more and more artificial intelligence (AI) and automation technology, they will become increasingly powerful tools. And eventually, they’ll help minimize the impact of oil spills to a level we’ve never seen before.
But using drones still brings some challenges. For example, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) requires drones to fly within visual line of sight (VLOS) of the pilot. Such regulations will need to change for drones to be maximally effective. After all, oil spills tend to happen in remote locations and across large areas where a drone often needs to fly far from the operator.
That said, The Drone Life has performed a range of drone services for satisfied clients across many oil and gas industries. Whether you’re working with an environmental protection agency and need help visualizing coastlines or you’re involved with inspecting pipeline infrastructure, then you’ve come to the right place. Contact us today for a free consultation.
