Towards an open-source oil spill early warning system in the Arabian Gulf

Oil extraction and shipping activities are a major source of oil spills, which continue to pollute marine environments despite the decline in major incidents, fueled by growing global energy demand. To mitigate the consequences of this pollution, early detection of oil spills is essential. The Persian Gulf, home to 3 of the world’s largest oil exporters is particularly vulnerable to hydrocarbon pollution. In this region, oil-related infrastructures—including pipelines, oil and gas terminals, offshore oil fields and major tanker routes—coexists with highly sensitive coastal ecosystems and facilities such as mangroves, seagrass beds, coral reefs, protected areas and desalination plants. Despite this, the region remains largely uncovered by dedicated oil spill early warning systems. Here we develop a robust oil spill detection approach based on Sentinel-1 SAR imagery, with particular emphasis on distinguishing oil spills from look-alikes that frequently mislead detection systems.

Affiliations

UCLouvainSST/ELI/ELIE - Environmental Sciences

Citations

APA
Chicago
FWB

Culot, A., Wang, Q., Hanert, E., & et al. (2025, June 23). Towards an open-source oil spill early warning system in the Arabian Gulf. Living Planet Symposium, Austria Center Vienna. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/269587