Abstract - A GIS Based Decision Model for Accidents Involving Hazardous Materials

Track: Environmental Management

Sridhar Hari

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Hari Sharma

A GIS Based Decision Model for Accidents Involving Hazardous Materials

Managing disastrous highway accidents involving gaseous hazardous spills requires accurate assessment of potential risks to both the population and the environment. Further, quick decisions must be made on how to effectively carry out emergency rescue and evacuation of the affected population. The main objective of this paper is to demonstrate that a Geographic Information System (GIS) provides an ideal tool to perform risk analysis and to effectively assist in emergency response and management. The discussion that follows, deals with a prototype model that attempts to integrate a AML (Arc Macro Language) based evacuation planning model and a dispersion model with ArcInfo on a UNIX environment to simulate gaseous spills and to provide a basic decision support system for the evacuation thereon under different circumstances. The evacuation planning model in combination with a similar dispersion model, provide important information on the nature of spill, concentration of gases with a time factor, evacuation areas for different types of hazardous materials and wind conditions, population affected in the critical evacuation area, shortest evacuation route out of the affected area. The dispersion model can be used to (a) map the toxic area and (b) to find the concentration of the spilt hazardous material in the vicinity of the affected area. The Evacuation Planning model mainly concentrates on certain issues arising in a post-accident scenario. Specifically, three main issues are addressed, namely, (a) the area affected due to a spill, (b) the population falling within that affected area and (c) to find a method to compute the shortest distance between different points in the vicinity of the affected area. The research study is conducted based on the highway network and 1990 census of the Greater Cincinnati Metropolitan Area. Defining Issue: Demonstrate that ArcInfo is an ideal and powerful GIS tool that can help as a Decision Support System for complex problems such as Emergency management and Hazardous spill incidents.