Abstract

All the areas in Canada are subjected to risk by hazardous-materials shipments. Some of these shipments take place locally or regionally, but a large number of them involve inter-provincial movements across significant distances, and this introduces further complications. According to a 1997 report of Transport Canada, roughly 56% of the total hazardous materials are transported by road annually from one state to another in Canada. Additionally, hazardous materials are transported via all major freight modes such as rail, marine and air. There are several distinct interest groups essentially seeking the same goal--a reduction in the adverse effects of commercial transportation operation on the community. With this consensus position that transportation hazard analysis and incident management are important components of contemporary transportation operations and regulation, there is a need to develop methods and systems that can be used to assist decision makers in addressing these considerations. This research describes a methodology and system development that can be applied to this task. This research presents a methodology for assessment of the hazardous material transport risk in a single commodity, multiple origin-destination setting. The province of Ontario is chosen as the study area and major cities are identified as points of origin and destination. Highway network in this area is the basis for identifying paths (routes) between origin-destination (cities) using different criteria such as distance, risk, etc. Gasoline shipments is chosen for the study. We developed a simulation model in Visual Basic to assess the risk imposed on certain cities through which hazmats (Hazardous Materials) are being transported which also illustrates the number of people to be evacuated in case of an incident. The purpose of this research is to get a clearer understanding of hazardous materials transportation and describe a community's/region's hazardous materials transportation risk problem. The model developed also assists decision makers to develop the right policies to reduce the risk posed due to the shipment of hazardous materials to life and environment.