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Browsing by Author "Pinardi, Nadia"

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  • A relocatable ocean model in support of environmental emergencies
    Publication . De Dominicis, Michela; Falchetti, Silvia; Trotta, Francesco; Pinardi, Nadia; Giacomelli, Luca; Napolitano, Ernesto; Fazioli, Leopoldo; Sorgente, Roberto; Haley, Patrick J., Jr.; Lermusiaux, Pierre F. J.; Martins, Flavio; Cocco, Michele
    During the Costa Concordia emergency case, regional, subregional, and relocatable ocean models have been used together with the oil spill model, MEDSLIK-II, to provide ocean currents forecasts, possible oil spill scenarios, and drifters trajectories simulations. The models results together with the evaluation of their performances are presented in this paper. In particular, we focused this work on the implementation of the Interactive Relocatable Nested Ocean Model (IRENOM), based on the Harvard Ocean Prediction System (HOPS), for the Costa Concordia emergency and on its validation using drifters released in the area of the accident. It is shown that thanks to the capability of improving easily and quickly its configuration, the IRENOM results are of greater accuracy than the results achieved using regional or subregional model products. The model topography, and to the initialization procedures, and the horizontal resolution are the key model settings to be configured. Furthermore, the IRENOM currents and the MEDSLIK-II simulated trajectories showed to be sensitive to the spatial resolution of the meteorological fields used, providing higher prediction skills with higher resolution wind forcing.
    2014-05Journal article Open access Show more
  • IT-OSRA: applying ensemble simulations to estimate the oil spill risk associated to operational and accidental oil spills
    Publication . Neves, Antonio Augusto Sepp; Pinardi, Nadia; Martins, Flávio Augusto Bastos da Cruz
    Oil Spill Risk Assessments (OSRAs) are widely employed to support decision making regarding oil spill risks. This article adapts the ISO-compliant OSRA framework developed by Sepp Neves et al. (J Environ Manag 159:158-168, 2015) to estimate risks in a complex scenario where uncertainties related to the meteo-oceanographic conditions, where and how a spill could happen exist and the risk computation methodology is not yet well established (ensemble oil spill modeling). The improved method was applied to the Algarve coast, Portugal. Over 50,000 simulations were performed in 2 ensemble experiments to estimate the risks due to operational and accidental spill scenarios associated with maritime traffic. The level of risk was found to be important for both types of scenarios, with significant seasonal variations due to the the currents and waves variability. Higher frequency variability in the meteo-oceanographic variables were also found to contribute to the level of risk. The ensemble results show that the distribution of oil concentrations found on the coast is not Gaussian, opening up new fields of research on how to deal with oil spill risks and related uncertainties.
    2016-08Journal article Restricted access Show more