Evaluation of the Risk in Man-Made Hazards of Transporting Dangerous Substances with the Approach of Reducing the Effective Consequences on Environmental Assets

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Department of Disasters Engineering, Education and Environmental Systems, Faculty of Environment, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Objective: The development and expansion of road transport causes a great impact on the development of a biological community. Today, rollovers and road accidents are considered as one of the most important man-made hazards in the field of transportation. Accidents that happen during the transportation of dangerous materials always have a great potential to become a disaster and a widespread crisis. This research focuses on assessing the risks caused by the transportation of dangerous substances, identifying the consequences and providing the optimal traffic route in order to reduce the effects on environmental assets in different seasons of the year. The ultimate goal of the research is to provide a comprehensive and generalizable model to be able to be used in achieving the practical purpose.
Method: In this research, the risk of man-made hazards in the transportation of hazardous materials in the study area was calculated considering criteria such as "the number of accidents and rollovers on each road”, “the number of traffic intersections according to the number of lanes”, “the severity of the accident, the number of deaths per kilometer”, and “the travel time on each route" and a mathematical model was desinged. Then, considering the risk of each route and their ranking using the Dijkstra algorithm, the best route for transporting hazardous materials was prioritized in order to reduce the possible consequences.
Results: Most of the studies related to the transportation of hazardous materials are usually conducted based on two general sections, including "determining and assessing transportation risk and identifying and analyzing asset vulnerability" in order to provide a solution to reduce risk. However, in this study, by utilizing the Dijkstra method to reduce possible consequences after calculating the risk of each route, the optimal traffic route was determined as the route with the lowest risk in different seasons of the year. In addition, in this research, in line with the main goal, a comprehensive conceptual model with generalizability has been presented in the form of a flowchart.
Conclusions: In the study process of this research the risk of man-made hazards of carriers of dangerous substances in transportation networks according to various criteria, including the adjusted number of injured on each road, the inherent risk of each route, the number of injured due to heavy vehicle accidents and the population around the route are estimated. Therefore, it is suggested that in future studies, indicators such as the inherent risk of vehicles and the inherent risk of drivers should also be considered.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

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Journal of Environmental Studies
Volume 50, Issue 4
February 2025
Pages 391-412

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