Designing an effective monitoring system based on satellite sensor for the oil spills detection in lake Maracaibo, Venezuela

Lake Maracaibo (Venezuela) constantly suffers some serious environmental problems, in particular the oil spill resulting from intensive hydrocarbons extraction. The state-run oil com- pany Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA) commissioned at the DIAEE (La Sapienza, Universi- ty of Rome) a feasibility study aiming at designing a monitoring system customized for the Lake Maracaibo, based on the use of satellite sensors, for the detection of the oil spill. However the pe- culiar meteorological, environmental and operational conditions present in the study area do not allow to realize a suitable and cost-effective monitoring system for the remote detection of the oil spills. We describe the results and the reasons respect of which we can state that such a monitoring system cannot be achieved. Measurement campaigns was carried out during the period February- March 2011 with the aim of analyzing the spectral behaviour of the oil when it floats on the lake surface and then define the channels of the electromagnetic spectrum in which it is more easy to distinguish oil contaminated water surface. The set of instruments used during the campaign was selected in order to cover the whole optical region (0.35 - 14 m) of the electromagnetic spectrum that is usually covered also by satellite sensors. Furthermore, this paper shows the results obtained by analyzing both the "in situ" data acquired during the measurement campaign, and the satellite data acquired from the satellite ENVISAT (ASAR and MERIS), MODIS and Landsat in the period of the campaign.