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NARRAGANSETT— Technology pertaining to environmental impact assessment is evolving, both in the standard of information available and in the distribution of that information. Companies worldwide are trying to attain the latest developments that will improve, environmentally, the services they specialize in.

Applied Science Associates, Inc., a company that develops and applies computer modeling to understand a variety of coastal problems, recently sold one of its modeling programs to a company in Malaysia. ASA Senior Engineer, Daniel Mendelsohn , traveled to Malaysia for a week in April to train engineers at the Malaysian national oil company, Petra Nas, on the modeling program OILMAP.

Oil companies worldwide are being required to implement programs which include contingency planning, spill prevention and spill response management, in accordance with environmental regulations.

Petra Nas has offshore oil platforms that transport oil to the mainland via pipelines. The OILMAP technology provided by ASA will help track how the oil will move in case one of the pipelines burst, Mendelsohn said.

OILMAP is a modeling system that plots the movement of oil after a spill and illustrates the spill path using a mapping system.

In the modeling system, the movement of wind and water can be represented by equations, which stem from basic laws of physics regarding the flow of energy.

"Let’s say that I have a string in my hand that I quickly raise and lower," Mendelsohn said, making a whipping motion with his hand. "My hand represents the measurements, and the string is the model of the wave motion. The wave motion can be calculated by how much my hand moves," he said.

The geographical area is represented in the model through a grid, which in turn is broken down into little pieces called cells. The equations for the movements of water, wind, and oil are applied to each cell. After all the equations have been applied, the program is able to visually display the overall pattern of movement for the whole grid.

It is like a jigsaw puzzle that is pieced together bit by bit. Each piece of information, or piece of the puzzle, is essential in constructing the overall picture.

Applied Science Associates has been working on this concept of modeling for 20 years as of May 1, 1999, bringing the technology to more than 50 countries, on every continent. Computer models are used by companies in response to increasing environmental regulations. By oil companies knowing the probability of spills and the impact they might have on the area, careful planning can be done, both to prevent and to quickly react to a crisis situation. This knowledge allows companies to successfully obtain permits for exploration and drilling.

Computer modeling is being used for environmental impact assessments other than oil spills, such as sewage release into the water, and temperature increase in waters around power plants.