Citation:

Raimondo, Sandy, J. Awkerman, S. Yee, AND M. Barron. Case Study: Using a Combined Laboratory, Field, and Modeling Approach to Assess Oil Spill Impacts. Scenarios and Responses to Future Deep Oil Spills – Fighting the Next War. Springer, Heidelberg, Germany, , 272-284, (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-12963-7_16

Impact/Purpose:

The case study presents a targeted research effort that employs laboratory, field, and modeling approaches to improve environmental assessments of chemical contamination, as demonstrated with the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and small estuarine fish. This work describes how assessment complexity and uncertainty should be evaluated to understand where research investments should be made to provide more robust assessment conclusions. In doing so, we highlight laboratory experiments, field surveys, and modeling research that reduce uncertainties in environmental assessments of chemical contamination. The case study demonstrates how research can be targeted to improve assessments by understanding the relative importance of model parameters to projected outcomes.

Description:

The Deepwater Horizon (DWH) spill was the largest oil spill in US history, requiring an assessment of injuries to nearshore habitats and estuarine organisms. Developing a model of appropriate complexity is critical in an environmental assessment; models should be complex enough to adequately address the assessment objectives without being more complex than is needed. We present an approach that starts with a sensitivity analysis of an initial assumption-based model to prioritize model parameters and focus research efforts to reduce model uncertainty. We then develop a targeted research strategy that utilized laboratory, field, and intermediate modeling efforts to parameterize a final set of models of varying complexity to evaluate risk. We demonstrate this process in a case study of the small estuarine fish, the sheepshead minnow (Cyprinodon variegatus), exposed to weathered oil in Barataria Bay, LA, following the DWH oil spill.

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