Location optimization for oil spill emergency response facility: An application in Çanakkale Strait

The dangers and risks brought about by the increased marine traffic density due to the transportation burden created by the global economy threaten the life and ecological balance. Especially, the risk of oil pollution in the sea stem from tanker ships is a serious risk that needs to be taken precautions and to be prepared for emergency response at any time. Responding to oil pollution at sea requires a wide variety of decisions to be taken quickly and accurately. This is only possible by locating a sufficient number of suitable equipment in the right places to be able to mobilize with minimum delay, within a plan, and in advance. For this reason, the optimization of the emergency response facility for oil pollution in the sea in terms of number and location is of great importance for the success of the response operation. In this thesis, the number and location of the facility to be placed for an emergency response to oil pollution incidents that may occur in the Çanakkale Strait, which is a strategic part of the Turkish Straits System and world maritime transport, has been optimized. For this purpose, first of all, hypothetical oil spill scenarios that may occur due to tanker ships in the Çanakkale Strait were developed and these scenarios were run in the oil spill simulation. The solution was reached by building a mathematical optimization model based on the data obtained from the simulation. In the first part of the integer linear programming model consisting of two parts, the optimum number of facilities to be placed was found by the set covering approach, and in the second part, the optimum location of the facility to be placed was obtained by the maximal covering approach. As a result, it is thought that optimizing the number and location of emergency response facilities that can respond to a possible oil pollution incident at sea in the Çanakkale Strait within the framework of maximum environmental benefit will be helpful for the authority in the decision-making process of the strategic planning stage. In addition, it is predicted that the built optimization model can be used in other geographies around the world to solve facility location problems for response to oil pollution at sea.