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Gadimova Sharafat 
TOWARDS THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN OPERATIONAL STRATEGY FOR OIL SPILL DETECTION AND 
MONITORING IN THE CASPIAN SEA BASED UPON A TECHNICAL EVALUATION OF SATELLITE SAR 
OBSERVATIONS IN SOUTHEAST ASIA 
Sharafat GADIMOVA 
Azerbaijan National Aerospace Agency (ANASA), Azerbaijan 
gsharafa@esrin.esa.it 
KEY WORDS: ERS, Image processing, Internet, Monitoring, RADARSAT, Techniques 
ABSTRACT 
A short assessment of the oil spill occurrences in the Strait of Malacca, Gulf of Thailand and Brunei Bay, based on 
interpretation of the low-resolution images, was carried out. The results indicate that most detected slicks are small in size 
but this is insignificant compared to the total covered area by the bigger slicks. Moreover, the most polluted waters are 
found along the major international shipping routes as well as in those areas with intensive oil exploitation activities. Using 
à similar approach, a mapping of oil spills in the Caspian Sea around Baku/Azerbaijan was carried out based on an example 
of analysis of ERS SAR imagery. Some preliminary conclusions are focused on an intense monitoring and ideas on the 
generation of an appropriate database for policy making and development planning in the region. 
1 INTRODUCTION 
One of the most relevant pollution is concerned with the effects of oil on marine and coastal ecosystems. As long as there is 
a global demand on petroleum products, however, oil spilling will continue to occur, making the improvement of 
monitoring very necessary. 
Oil spill can occur both in the open sea and in coastal waters. There have already been several spectacular accidents, 
involving the spilling of very large quantifies of crude oil from supertankers. For instance, the grounding of the Sea 
Empress in February 1996 caused one of the largest and most environmentally damaging oil spills in European history. 
About 72,000 tonnes of crude oil were released into the seas around the coast of southwest Wales (Clemento-Colon er al., 
1996). 
In the Southeast Asia region the growth of human activities has had a significant impact to nature. Among these, accidental 
and chronic oil pollution of the marine environment is one of the most important issue. In this domain, it is expected that 
significant improvements may result from the use of space borne remote sensing technology. In particular, freely available 
low-resolution Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images can be used to provide a spatial distribution map. The aim of such a 
map is to collect all of the relevant information to assist end users in setting-up emergency plans and organizing pollution 
response operations (Gadimova, 1998). 
In addition, the aim of such a study in this region is to establish the techniques and tools along with necessary expertise to 
monitor oil spills. In general, such experience can be applied also in a number of key test sites in other threatened areas such 
as the Caspian Sea, for instance in the coastal zone of Baku/Azerbaijan. 
The Caspian Sea is probably unique in the world when it comes to the environmental impact of oil pollution. Considering 
the technology used in marine oil production, we are faced with a variety of pollutants. As a result, the Caspian Sea is 
polluted by petroleum, chemicals as well as by waste waters from industries. Also accidental oil spills occur. They are 
rather frequent during oil exploration, extraction and transportation (Mekhtiev et al., 1997). 
This paper describes the results of these two studies and examines some of the issues related to the development of an 
operational strategy for oil spill detection and monitoring based on satellite observations. 
  
International Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXIII, Part Bl. Amsterdam 2000. 295