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Context of the problem
Petroleum products play an essential role in the transportation, plastics and fertiliser industries [1]. Liquid petroleum hydrocarbon (oil) products consist of various unrefined and refined liquid components.
Unrefined petroleum (crude oil) are dense hydrocarbon compounds that from small volatile to large non-valotile compounds [2]. Petroleum products are mixtures of fewer hydrocarbon compounds that
are more specific and less variable. Examples of petroleum products include gasoline and diesel fuel. Crude oil and other oil products are predominantly (about 90% [3]) are transported across the ocean using oil-tankers. The massive oil quantities carried by ships often results in an almost inevitable risk of oil pollution. There can be as many as 10–15 transfers involved in the moving of oil [1]. Oil spills can happen in water, ice or on land during oil shipping or storage [4]. Once the oil is spilt, it soon spreads to create a thin oil film on the ocean surface, known as an oil-slick, see example in Fig. 1.1.
In this thesis, the terms oil spill, oil slick and bilge dumps refer to maritime oil pollution released due to human activity into the ocean environment. Oil spills are a result of the intentional or unintentional release of oil to the ocean environment, see Fig. 1.2. Accidental oil spills are mainly caused by oil tankers or on offshore oil platforms and can result in massive quantities spills which often attract a lot of media attention. Deliberated oil spill are often caused by vessels illegally discharging oily waste during cleaning operations. A vessel’s oil leaking from the engine and other debris is stored in a vessel storage area called a bilge. A bilge (also known as a bilge well) is found in the bottom of part of a ship and is used to store water waste from the daily routine operations of vessels. Bilge waste includes lubricating oil, cleaning diesel oil, oily sludge, spills from the engine room, water leaks from internal pipes and seawater filtrations.
The law requires the retrieval of oily bilge waste-water to be in the harbours. However, vessels often dump bilge waste before entering a port in efforts to save costs and time spent at the port [6, 7]. Commonly fewer quantities of oil are spilt during illegal bilge dumping. However, it happens so frequently that bilge dumping is the highest contributor to ocean oil spills. In fact, discharges of bilge and fuel oil are comparable to about five Exxon-Valdez oil spills (one of the most significant recorded oil spills in the United States) yearly [8, 9]. The rate of oil pollution from ships is expected to rise as the levels of maritime activities increase [7].
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 PROBLEM STATEMENT
1.3 HYPOTHESIS AND APPROACH
1.4 RESEARCH GOALS AND CONTRIBUTION
1.5 OVERVIEW OF STUDY
CHAPTER 2 MARITIME OIL POLLUTION
2.1 OIL SPILL SOURCE
2.2 OIL IN THE OCEAN
2.4 SUMMARY
CHAPTER 3 OIL SPILL REMOTE SENSING
3.1 RS OVERVIEW
3.2 OIL SPILL RS EFFORTS
3.3 SUMMARY
CHAPTER 4 OIL SPILL IMAGING USING SAR
4.1 SAR SYSTEMS OVERVIEW
4.3 SAR IMAGING OIL SPILL
4.4 SUMMARY
CHAPTER 5 OIL SPILL DETECTION USING SAR: A REVIEW
5.1 BACKGROUND
5.2 PREPROCESSING
5.3 DARKSPOT DETECTION
5.4 FEATURE EXTRACTION
5.5 OIL SPILL DISCRIMINATION
5.6 SUMMARY
CHAPTER 6 A NOVEL FRAMEWORK FOR OIL SPILL DETECTION USING SAR
CHAPTER 7 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
CHAPTER 8 CONCLUSION
REFERENCES
