Ten years of modeling the Deepwater Horizon oil spill

C. H. Ainsworth; E. P. Chassignet; D. French-McCay; C. J. Beegle-Krause; I. Berenshtein; J. Englehardt; T. Fiddaman; H. Huang; M. Huettel; D. Justic; V. H. Kourafalou; Y. Liu; C. Mauritzen; S. Murawski; S. Morey; T. Özgökmen; C. B. Paris; J. Ruzicka; S. Saul; J. Shepherd; S. Socolofsky; H. Solo Gabriele; T. Sutton; R. H. Weisberg; C. Wilson; L. Zheng; Y. Zheng

doi:10.1016/j.envsoft.2021.105070

Ten years of modeling the Deepwater Horizon oil spill

C. H. Ainsworth, E. P. Chassignet, D. French-McCay, C. J. Beegle-Krause, I. Berenshtein, J. Englehardt, T. Fiddaman, H. Huang, M. Huettel, D. Justic, V. H. Kourafalou, Y. Liu, C. Mauritzen, S. Murawski, S. Morey, T. Özgökmen, C. B. Paris, J. Ruzicka, S. Saul, J. ShepherdS. Socolofsky, H. Solo Gabriele, T. Sutton, R. H. Weisberg, C. Wilson, L. Zheng, Y. Zheng

Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › peer-review

Abstract

Since the 2010 Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill, the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GOMRI) has studied the oil spill from the perspectives of ocean environment, ecosystems, socioeconomics and human health. As GOMRI sunsets in its tenth year after the DWH oil spill, synthesis efforts recently took place to assess the accomplishments of the program. In this paper, we report on DWH modeling as part of GOMRI's Synthesis and Legacy effort. We compile a list of 330 published applications by GOMRI, the Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA), and others studying the DWH oil spill and look at a wide range of subjects, tools, achievements, and integration with field research. We offer highlights and synthesis based on discussions and public webinars held in 2019 and 2020. We synthesize the significant achievements and advancements that have been made in integrating the various disciplines and domains from a modeling perspective. There was a large diversity of tools used, including at least 74 unique modeling systems. Most studies employed circulation models. These hydrodynamic models were often coupled to wave, river, and atmosphere models, as well as representations of high pressure physics and oil chemistry. Several research groups used Lagrangian transport models and statistical inference to track subsurface oil. Some coupled biophysical models were also employed to study oil fate and weathering, larval transport, biological effects, and population dynamics. In a few cases, such biophysical models were linked to marine populations and to humans through socioeconomics effects and ecosystem services. We consider models made for response planning and remediation, damage assessment, and restoration planning. There are relatively few socioeconomic or human health models, although those few examples make good use of biophysical modeling products. Our conclusions offer some insights on how the development of new tools has better prepared us for studying environmental management challenges in the Gulf of Mexico.

Original language	English
Article number	105070
Journal	Environmental Modelling and Software
Volume	142
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2021.105070
State	Published - Aug 2021
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Cameron Ainsworth reports financial support was provided by Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative GOMRI.

Funding Information:
It is the end of a ten-year research program studying the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill. The independent Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GOMRI) was funded by a U.S. $500 million commitment from BP. GOMRI's goal was to ?improve society's ability to understand, respond to and mitigate the impacts of petroleum pollution and related stressors of the marine and coastal ecosystems, with an emphasis on conditions found in the Gulf of Mexico? (from the GOMRI Mission Statement). GOMRI solicited proposals for fast-response studies in 2010 and issued six more requests for proposals from 2011 to 2018. These were directed at research consortia (consisting of four or more institutes), smaller groups, and individual researchers. Altogether, 394 research groups, 17 consortia, and at least 2849 researchers from around the world contributed over the past 10 years (GRIIDC 2020). More than 1260 peer-reviewed publications have been produced and more than 3154 data sets have been archived on the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative Information and Data Cooperative (GRIIDC) data repository, comprising at least 83 TB of data (GRIIDC 2020).

Funding Information:
It is the end of a ten-year research program studying the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill. The independent Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GOMRI) was funded by a U.S. $500 million commitment from BP. GOMRI's goal was to “improve society's ability to understand, respond to and mitigate the impacts of petroleum pollution and related stressors of the marine and coastal ecosystems, with an emphasis on conditions found in the Gulf of Mexico” (from the GOMRI Mission Statement). GOMRI solicited proposals for fast-response studies in 2010 and issued six more requests for proposals from 2011 to 2018. These were directed at research consortia (consisting of four or more institutes), smaller groups, and individual researchers. Altogether, 394 research groups, 17 consortia, and at least 2849 researchers from around the world contributed over the past 10 years ( GRIIDC 2020 ). More than 1260 peer-reviewed publications have been produced and more than 3154 data sets have been archived on the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative Information and Data Cooperative (GRIIDC) data repository, comprising at least 83 TB of data ( GRIIDC 2020 ).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Elsevier Ltd

Keywords

Deepwater horizon
Ecosystem
Numerical modeling
Oil spill
Oil transport and fate
Socioeconomic

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Software
Environmental Engineering
Ecological Modeling

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

10.1016/j.envsoft.2021.105070

Cite this

Ainsworth, C. H., Chassignet, E. P., French-McCay, D., Beegle-Krause, C. J., Berenshtein, I., Englehardt, J., Fiddaman, T., Huang, H., Huettel, M., Justic, D., Kourafalou, V. H., Liu, Y., Mauritzen, C., Murawski, S., Morey, S., Özgökmen, T., Paris, C. B., Ruzicka, J., Saul, S., ... Zheng, Y. (2021). Ten years of modeling the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Environmental Modelling and Software, 142, Article 105070. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2021.105070

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title = "Ten years of modeling the Deepwater Horizon oil spill",

abstract = "Since the 2010 Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill, the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GOMRI) has studied the oil spill from the perspectives of ocean environment, ecosystems, socioeconomics and human health. As GOMRI sunsets in its tenth year after the DWH oil spill, synthesis efforts recently took place to assess the accomplishments of the program. In this paper, we report on DWH modeling as part of GOMRI's Synthesis and Legacy effort. We compile a list of 330 published applications by GOMRI, the Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA), and others studying the DWH oil spill and look at a wide range of subjects, tools, achievements, and integration with field research. We offer highlights and synthesis based on discussions and public webinars held in 2019 and 2020. We synthesize the significant achievements and advancements that have been made in integrating the various disciplines and domains from a modeling perspective. There was a large diversity of tools used, including at least 74 unique modeling systems. Most studies employed circulation models. These hydrodynamic models were often coupled to wave, river, and atmosphere models, as well as representations of high pressure physics and oil chemistry. Several research groups used Lagrangian transport models and statistical inference to track subsurface oil. Some coupled biophysical models were also employed to study oil fate and weathering, larval transport, biological effects, and population dynamics. In a few cases, such biophysical models were linked to marine populations and to humans through socioeconomics effects and ecosystem services. We consider models made for response planning and remediation, damage assessment, and restoration planning. There are relatively few socioeconomic or human health models, although those few examples make good use of biophysical modeling products. Our conclusions offer some insights on how the development of new tools has better prepared us for studying environmental management challenges in the Gulf of Mexico.",

keywords = "Deepwater horizon, Ecosystem, Numerical modeling, Oil spill, Oil transport and fate, Socioeconomic",

author = "Ainsworth, {C. H.} and Chassignet, {E. P.} and D. French-McCay and Beegle-Krause, {C. J.} and I. Berenshtein and J. Englehardt and T. Fiddaman and H. Huang and M. Huettel and D. Justic and Kourafalou, {V. H.} and Y. Liu and C. Mauritzen and S. Murawski and S. Morey and T. {\"O}zg{\"o}kmen and Paris, {C. B.} and J. Ruzicka and S. Saul and J. Shepherd and S. Socolofsky and {Solo Gabriele}, H. and T. Sutton and Weisberg, {R. H.} and C. Wilson and L. Zheng and Y. Zheng",

note = "Funding Information: The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Cameron Ainsworth reports financial support was provided by Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative GOMRI. Funding Information: It is the end of a ten-year research program studying the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill. The independent Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GOMRI) was funded by a U.S. $500 million commitment from BP. GOMRI's goal was to ?improve society's ability to understand, respond to and mitigate the impacts of petroleum pollution and related stressors of the marine and coastal ecosystems, with an emphasis on conditions found in the Gulf of Mexico? (from the GOMRI Mission Statement). GOMRI solicited proposals for fast-response studies in 2010 and issued six more requests for proposals from 2011 to 2018. These were directed at research consortia (consisting of four or more institutes), smaller groups, and individual researchers. Altogether, 394 research groups, 17 consortia, and at least 2849 researchers from around the world contributed over the past 10 years (GRIIDC 2020). More than 1260 peer-reviewed publications have been produced and more than 3154 data sets have been archived on the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative Information and Data Cooperative (GRIIDC) data repository, comprising at least 83 TB of data (GRIIDC 2020). Funding Information: It is the end of a ten-year research program studying the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill. The independent Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GOMRI) was funded by a U.S. $500 million commitment from BP. GOMRI's goal was to “improve society's ability to understand, respond to and mitigate the impacts of petroleum pollution and related stressors of the marine and coastal ecosystems, with an emphasis on conditions found in the Gulf of Mexico” (from the GOMRI Mission Statement). GOMRI solicited proposals for fast-response studies in 2010 and issued six more requests for proposals from 2011 to 2018. These were directed at research consortia (consisting of four or more institutes), smaller groups, and individual researchers. Altogether, 394 research groups, 17 consortia, and at least 2849 researchers from around the world contributed over the past 10 years ( GRIIDC 2020 ). More than 1260 peer-reviewed publications have been produced and more than 3154 data sets have been archived on the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative Information and Data Cooperative (GRIIDC) data repository, comprising at least 83 TB of data ( GRIIDC 2020 ). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021 Elsevier Ltd",

year = "2021",

month = aug,

doi = "10.1016/j.envsoft.2021.105070",

language = "English",

volume = "142",

journal = "Environmental Modelling and Software",

issn = "1364-8152",

publisher = "Elsevier",

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Ainsworth, CH, Chassignet, EP, French-McCay, D, Beegle-Krause, CJ, Berenshtein, I, Englehardt, J, Fiddaman, T, Huang, H, Huettel, M, Justic, D, Kourafalou, VH, Liu, Y, Mauritzen, C, Murawski, S, Morey, S, Özgökmen, T, Paris, CB, Ruzicka, J, Saul, S, Shepherd, J, Socolofsky, S, Solo Gabriele, H, Sutton, T, Weisberg, RH, Wilson, C, Zheng, L & Zheng, Y 2021, 'Ten years of modeling the Deepwater Horizon oil spill', Environmental Modelling and Software, vol. 142, 105070. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2021.105070

TY - JOUR

T1 - Ten years of modeling the Deepwater Horizon oil spill

AU - Ainsworth, C. H.

AU - Chassignet, E. P.

AU - French-McCay, D.

AU - Beegle-Krause, C. J.

AU - Berenshtein, I.

AU - Englehardt, J.

AU - Fiddaman, T.

AU - Huang, H.

AU - Huettel, M.

AU - Justic, D.

AU - Kourafalou, V. H.

AU - Liu, Y.

AU - Mauritzen, C.

AU - Murawski, S.

AU - Morey, S.

AU - Özgökmen, T.

AU - Paris, C. B.

AU - Ruzicka, J.

AU - Saul, S.

AU - Shepherd, J.

AU - Socolofsky, S.

AU - Solo Gabriele, H.

AU - Sutton, T.

AU - Weisberg, R. H.

AU - Wilson, C.

AU - Zheng, L.

AU - Zheng, Y.

N1 - Funding Information: The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Cameron Ainsworth reports financial support was provided by Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative GOMRI. Funding Information: It is the end of a ten-year research program studying the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill. The independent Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GOMRI) was funded by a U.S. $500 million commitment from BP. GOMRI's goal was to ?improve society's ability to understand, respond to and mitigate the impacts of petroleum pollution and related stressors of the marine and coastal ecosystems, with an emphasis on conditions found in the Gulf of Mexico? (from the GOMRI Mission Statement). GOMRI solicited proposals for fast-response studies in 2010 and issued six more requests for proposals from 2011 to 2018. These were directed at research consortia (consisting of four or more institutes), smaller groups, and individual researchers. Altogether, 394 research groups, 17 consortia, and at least 2849 researchers from around the world contributed over the past 10 years (GRIIDC 2020). More than 1260 peer-reviewed publications have been produced and more than 3154 data sets have been archived on the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative Information and Data Cooperative (GRIIDC) data repository, comprising at least 83 TB of data (GRIIDC 2020). Funding Information: It is the end of a ten-year research program studying the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill. The independent Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GOMRI) was funded by a U.S. $500 million commitment from BP. GOMRI's goal was to “improve society's ability to understand, respond to and mitigate the impacts of petroleum pollution and related stressors of the marine and coastal ecosystems, with an emphasis on conditions found in the Gulf of Mexico” (from the GOMRI Mission Statement). GOMRI solicited proposals for fast-response studies in 2010 and issued six more requests for proposals from 2011 to 2018. These were directed at research consortia (consisting of four or more institutes), smaller groups, and individual researchers. Altogether, 394 research groups, 17 consortia, and at least 2849 researchers from around the world contributed over the past 10 years ( GRIIDC 2020 ). More than 1260 peer-reviewed publications have been produced and more than 3154 data sets have been archived on the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative Information and Data Cooperative (GRIIDC) data repository, comprising at least 83 TB of data ( GRIIDC 2020 ). Publisher Copyright: © 2021 Elsevier Ltd

PY - 2021/8

Y1 - 2021/8

N2 - Since the 2010 Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill, the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GOMRI) has studied the oil spill from the perspectives of ocean environment, ecosystems, socioeconomics and human health. As GOMRI sunsets in its tenth year after the DWH oil spill, synthesis efforts recently took place to assess the accomplishments of the program. In this paper, we report on DWH modeling as part of GOMRI's Synthesis and Legacy effort. We compile a list of 330 published applications by GOMRI, the Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA), and others studying the DWH oil spill and look at a wide range of subjects, tools, achievements, and integration with field research. We offer highlights and synthesis based on discussions and public webinars held in 2019 and 2020. We synthesize the significant achievements and advancements that have been made in integrating the various disciplines and domains from a modeling perspective. There was a large diversity of tools used, including at least 74 unique modeling systems. Most studies employed circulation models. These hydrodynamic models were often coupled to wave, river, and atmosphere models, as well as representations of high pressure physics and oil chemistry. Several research groups used Lagrangian transport models and statistical inference to track subsurface oil. Some coupled biophysical models were also employed to study oil fate and weathering, larval transport, biological effects, and population dynamics. In a few cases, such biophysical models were linked to marine populations and to humans through socioeconomics effects and ecosystem services. We consider models made for response planning and remediation, damage assessment, and restoration planning. There are relatively few socioeconomic or human health models, although those few examples make good use of biophysical modeling products. Our conclusions offer some insights on how the development of new tools has better prepared us for studying environmental management challenges in the Gulf of Mexico.

AB - Since the 2010 Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill, the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GOMRI) has studied the oil spill from the perspectives of ocean environment, ecosystems, socioeconomics and human health. As GOMRI sunsets in its tenth year after the DWH oil spill, synthesis efforts recently took place to assess the accomplishments of the program. In this paper, we report on DWH modeling as part of GOMRI's Synthesis and Legacy effort. We compile a list of 330 published applications by GOMRI, the Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA), and others studying the DWH oil spill and look at a wide range of subjects, tools, achievements, and integration with field research. We offer highlights and synthesis based on discussions and public webinars held in 2019 and 2020. We synthesize the significant achievements and advancements that have been made in integrating the various disciplines and domains from a modeling perspective. There was a large diversity of tools used, including at least 74 unique modeling systems. Most studies employed circulation models. These hydrodynamic models were often coupled to wave, river, and atmosphere models, as well as representations of high pressure physics and oil chemistry. Several research groups used Lagrangian transport models and statistical inference to track subsurface oil. Some coupled biophysical models were also employed to study oil fate and weathering, larval transport, biological effects, and population dynamics. In a few cases, such biophysical models were linked to marine populations and to humans through socioeconomics effects and ecosystem services. We consider models made for response planning and remediation, damage assessment, and restoration planning. There are relatively few socioeconomic or human health models, although those few examples make good use of biophysical modeling products. Our conclusions offer some insights on how the development of new tools has better prepared us for studying environmental management challenges in the Gulf of Mexico.

KW - Deepwater horizon

KW - Ecosystem

KW - Numerical modeling

KW - Oil spill

KW - Oil transport and fate

KW - Socioeconomic

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85105701779&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.envsoft.2021.105070

DO - 10.1016/j.envsoft.2021.105070

M3 - Review article

AN - SCOPUS:85105701779

SN - 1364-8152

VL - 142

JO - Environmental Modelling and Software

JF - Environmental Modelling and Software

M1 - 105070

ER -

Ten years of modeling the Deepwater Horizon oil spill

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

UN SDGs

Access to Document

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