• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.467-475
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• 2013

In order to seize quantitative materials as part of studies on measures for oil pollution prevention and control, the statistics of oil pollution incidents in Korean coastal waters for 10 years from 2003 to 2012 were analyzed with relation to the number of oil spills and the volume of oil spilt according to causes, sources and sea areas of spills. Total number and total volume of oil spills for 10 years were found to be 2,833 cases and 17,877 kL, respectively. 50.4 %(1,429 cases) of total number of oil spills were caused by negligence, although oil spillage due to negligence was 294 kL(1.7 %). While oil spillage caused by marine accidents was 17,400 kL(97.3 %), marine accidents accounted for 27.9 %(790 cases) of total number of oil spills. While negligence had a great influence on the number of oil spills, marine accidents had a huge impact on the amount of oil spilt. Fishing boats accounted for 42.7 %(1,210 cases) of the number of oil spills, and although oil tankers accounted for 9.2 %(261 cases) of the number of oil spills, oil spillage from oil tankers was 15,488kL(86.7 %). It means that oil tankers such as VLCC or ULCC may be the main sources of major oil spills and a few very large spills are responsible for a high percentage of the amount of oil spilt. While the number of oil spill incidents was closely related to the accidents of fishing boats, the volume of oil spilt was greatly affected by the major oil spill incidents of oil tankers such as M/T Hebei Spirit. The number and volume of oil spills were shown to be 1,613 cases(56.9 %) and 3,804 kL(21.3 %) in South Sea, 700 cases(24.7 %) and 13,501 kL(75.5 %) in West Sea, and 520 cases(18.2 %) and 572 kL(3.2 %) in East Sea of Korea, respectively. The highest number of oil spills was found in South Sea and the most volume of oil spilt was shown in West Sea of Korea for 10 years.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.322-331
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• 2016

Oil budget calculator identifies the removal pathways of spilled oil by both natural and response methods, and estimates the remaining oil required response activities. A oil budget calculator was newly developed as a response tool for Deepwater Horizon oil spill incident in Gulf of Mexico in 2010 to inform clean up decisions for Incident Comment System, which was also successfully utilized to media and general public promotion of oil spill response activities. This study analyzed the theoretical background of the oil budget calculator and explored its future application to Korea. The oil budge calculation of four catastrophic marine pollution incidents indicates that 3~8% of spilled oil was removed mechanically by skimmers, 1~5% by in-situ burning, 4.8~16% by chemical dispersion due to dispersant operation, and 37~56% by weathering processes such as evaporation, dissolution, and natural dispersion. The results show that in-situ burning and chemical dispersion effectively remove spilled oil more than the mechanical removal by skimming, and natural weathering processes are also very effective to remove spilled oil. To apply the oil budget calculator in Korea, its parameters need to be optimized in response to the seasonal characteristics of marine environment, the characteristics of spilled oil and response technologies. A new algorithm also needs to be developed to estimate the oil budget due to shoreline cleanup activities. An oil budget calculator optimized in Korea can play a critical role in informing decisions for oil spill response activities and communicating spill prevention and response activities with the media and general public.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.205-212
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• 2009

With an entry into force of OPRC-HNS on June 14th 2007, response system against any large scale accidents related to HNS is required to respond rapidly and effectively in a national scale, US national response system and national contingency plan for any chemicals in operation were analyzed to understand the characteristics of management system and response system for any HNS driven accidents in the Us. Main characteristics of the US system were well described as an unified information window and an integrated incident command system supported by response facilities, manpower and technical support from other response organizations through good cooperation. In general, response activities are conducted by private sectors, however, the government will take over response activities in case large scale accidents occur in the Us. Expected expenses for response activities are covered by a type of Superfund in the Us. Several applicable ways are proposed to enable NGO to participate in and reorganize response system in ROK, and are feasible in collaboration with other response organizations and private sectors in the aspects of equipment, technology and manpower, Based upon the above activities, it is desirable to reorganize domestic rules and/or regulations related to response measures in ROK.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.731-736
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• 2021

Oil fences effectively prevent the spread of oil spilled in the sea, thereby reducing the damage to the marine environment. However, the fence is damaged by oil and structures at the accident site and is discarded. When incinerated disposal method for discarded fences, fine dust, and harmful materials are generated. Moreover, as a part of the damaged fence is dumped into the sea, it may cause secondary environmental pollution, such as microplastics. Therefore, in this study, durability was measured using the most common solid foam type oil fences. As a result, the reduction rate of after five days of contact was 13 % in seawater and 3 % in oil, affected by temperature changes. Thus, the durability of the fence should be improved because it is exposed to seawater and oil and affected by wind, light, and waves depending on the weather conditions. Therefore, we suggest a method to improve the oil fence inspection to strengthen the durability of the fence's fabric part.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.177-181
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• 2008

In this study, the authors analyzed the limit of IOPC Fund system, such as limit of compensation, amount of FC, long period of assessment by IOPC Fund, issue of non verification by poor claimant or small business, issue of poor claimant subsistence in early stage of accidents, and comparatively analyzed how the three countries resolved these limits by enacting special laws and government policy. Until recently most governments have carried out prevention policy for maritime safety, oil spill response, investigation of maritime accidents, and restoration of marine environment when oil spill accidents happened. However, governments have not actively participated in the oil spill compensation process because it is a matter of private sectors between the polluter and claimant. The governments have only limited their role in ratifying Civil Liability Convention and Fund Convention and enacted relevant domestic laws. However, the governments of France, Spain, and Korea have actively participated in the compensation process of oil pollution incidents of M/T Erika, M/T Prestige, and M/T Hebei Spirit. This is because they had experiences of unsuccessful compensation in M/T Amoco Cadiz, M/T Agean Sea, and M/T Sea Prince.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.56-62
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• 2005

Chemical analyses are generally used to assess contaminated soils and to monitor the efficiency of soil remediation. In this study, the ecotoxicological methods was suggested to evaluate soil pollution by using a battery of bioassay. Plant assay and earthworm assay were conducted to evaluate ecotoxicity o soils contaminated by heavy metals (cadmium and copper) and oil (BTEX compounds, toluene). Test plants were Zea may, Triticum aestivum, Cucumis sativus, and Sorghum bicolor. The presence of heavy metals decreased the seedling growth. Cucumis sativus and Sorghum bicolor seemed to be good indicator plants which are sensitive to heavy metal pollution as well as BTEX contamination. An earthworm bioassay was performed to predict the ecotoxicity in toluene-contaminated soils, based on a simple contact method. Perionyx excavatus was adopted as a test earthworm species, and the severity of response increased with increasing toluene concentration. The present study demonstrated that ecotoxicological methods could be a quantitative approach to evaluate contaminated soils.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.3-12
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• 2003

Due to the high demand on energy resources accompanied by continuing industrialization and urbanization, the world marine transportation of crude and product oils is being gradually increased. In Korea, we are exposed to the large-scale marine oil spill accidents because a very large oil tanker of 300,000 tonnage must enter Korean Ports every day to meet the domestic demand on oils. Although we are exerting our strength to reduce the probability of marine oil pollution accidents, a unrestorable oil spill is to occur owing to human errors, severe weather conditions, or combined causes. Thus, area contingency plan equipped with appropriate management system for response and restoration for the worst case discharge scenario must be entirely prepared to protect mine environments and coastal resources. In particular, we are focusing on the Environmental Sensitivity Index Map(ESI Map) to reduce the environmental consequences of both spills and clean-up efforts by specifying protection Priorities in advance and identifying in-situ response strategies. In this paper, Korean ESI Map is introduced with brief definition of sensitivity to oiling and main features of the software developed hitherto.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.435-444
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• 2009

In the case of oil spill accident at sea, information concerning the movement of spilled oil is important in making response strategies. Aircrafts and the satellites have been utilized for monitoring of spilled oil. In these days, numerical models are using to predict the movement of the spilled oil. In the future a coupling method of modeling and remote sensing data should be needed to predict more correctly the spilled oil. The purpose of this paper is to present an application of satellite image data to an oil spill prediction model as an initial condition. Environmental Fluid Dynamics Computer Code (EFDC) was used to predict the movement of the oil spilled from Hebei Spirit incident occurred in Taean coastal area on December 7,2007. In order to make the model initial condition and to compare the model results, two satellite images, KOMPSAT-2 MSC and ENVISAT ASAR obtained on December 8 and 11, were used during the period of the oil spill incident. The model results showed an improvement for the prediction of the spilled oil by using the initial condition deduced from satellite image data than the initial condition specified at the oil spill incident site in the respects of the distributed spilled area.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.227-231
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• 2001

In this paper recently catastrophic oil spills from tanker casualties have polluted the marine environment. The Sea Prince casualties are analyzed and the systems to be introduced are considered. Also, the establishment of the national contingency plan and the decision-making procedure based on technical analysis are described. Based on the discussions the Rapid Response Technical Support System is derived for the support of salvage and oil spill removal operation. The System will contribute to the protection of life and assets from the marine casualties and to keeping the clean and safe ocean.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.70-75
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• 2000

It is important that effective and rapid response should be taken in the initial stage of the tanker accidents. A towing simulation system is essential to train in-site salvors for tile effective response in the tanker accidents. Training this system will help the marine environment to be protected from the oil pollution which could be proceed further by the secondary accidents. It this study, the towing simulation system using the TIS(Towing vessel Information System) was established, and ground reaction force was calculated using the simplified methods. This system will be useful for evaluation of towing procedures of oil tankers in stranding.