Oil spill trajectory: A comparison between 2D and 3D models

Oil spills in the marine environment are a harmful threat to the environment, the population, and the economy. For this reason, it is important to know the trajectory of oil slicks in case of a spill in order to prioritize actions for oil recovery and thus to better protect areas exposed to pollution risk. For this purpose, several oil slick drift models are developed to study the impact of various possible scenarios and to estimate the environmental sensitivity of a maritime and coastal area even before this type of accident occurs. In this context, this paper presents the applications of a two (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) oil spill models, suggested to define the trajectory of the oil slick in a marine environment taking into account different meteorological parameters. The two models have been applied to simulate the oil spill propagation in the case of a collision accident that occurred off Saint-Tropez (France) on 7 October 2018.