ABSTRACT
Industrial accidents, such as toxic spills, have caused catastrophic damage to ecological environments (animals and plants), so that an effective method to assess ecological risks has been demanded. The most recent case: the oil spill that is affecting the Northeast coast of Brazil’s environment. Fernando de Noronha Archipelago (FNA) is a marine protected area off the coast of Brazil. A recent study performed a Quantitative Risk Analysis (QRA) in FNA and the results obtained were that the industrial activity under consideration causes the marine ecosystem of FNA to be endangered, according to the IUCN risk categories. However, this study was conservative and did not assess the fate and transport of the oil in the ocean. In this new study we intend to perform an improved QRA in FNA, including the fate and transport model of the oil, by coupling the Ocean Modeling System – ROMS Regional Oceanic Circulation model with the MEDSLIK-II hydrocarbon dispersion model to simulate the evolution of the oil plume.
