Spatial analysis tools for hazardous materials transportation logistics

Very large and ever-increasing amounts of hazardous materials (Hazmats) are transported daily on transport networks. Accidental release of Hazmat can have very undesirable environmental and economic consequences. Some measures to reduce the risk resulting from Hazmat transport are selecting safer roads, limiting Hazmat trucks to designated routes and making sure that government regulations and specifications on Hazmat shipment are strictly followed. This thesis mainly deals with four issues:; The first issue is to evaluate the capabilities of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for hazardous materials transport decision support. Because most data needed for Hazmat transport decision making have a spatial dimension and GIS is an essential tool for the effective use of spatial data, I will evaluate the potential of using the state-of-the-art GIS technology as a framework for Hazmat transport decision support systems.; The second issue is to develop a methodology to incorporate dispersion models in network risk assessment since risks resulting from Hazmat transportation are often affected by wind conditions. Incorporating dispersion models that consider wind conditions in network risk assessment is very difficult and the existing methods for doing it are either not practical in computing time or can only deal with certain special cases. This research overcame the limitations of previous methods and developed a raster GIS approach that can compute the network risks efficiently and without making limiting assumptions to the dispersion models. The third issue is to develop an approach for designing Hazmat networks for municipalities. Previous methods for designing Hazmat routes do not explicitly involve quantitative risk analysis, nor do they consider the multi-party, multi-objective nature of the problem. The procedure developed in this study addresses these factors.; The fourth issue is to develop a robust algorithm for the inspection station location model, which can be used to locate facilities that inspect Hazmat trucks.; The thesis emphasizes methodological developments and their practical uses. All methods developed in this study have been tested on a real network to ensure their applicability in real-world decision support.