A Multi-Objective Emergency Rescue Facilities Location Model for Catastrophic Interlocking Chemical Accidents in Chemical Parks

Abstract

Catastrophic interlocking chemical accidents (CICAs) are the most frequent hazardous events that occur in chemical parks, and they result in severe human casualties and property losses. Emergency rescue facilities play an important role in ensuring the safety of chemical parks, as their locations determine the efficiency and effectiveness of the emergency management process. This paper proposes a multi-objective emergency rescue facilities location (ERFsL) model for emergency management of CICAs. Due to the special characteristics of CICAs, the proposed model considers not only the spatial characteristics of the facilities but also the potential risks associated with CICAs. A quantitative area risk assessment (QARA) approach based on domino effect and grid partition is involved to delineate the potential negative impacts of CICAs on different demand points. Moreover, a matrix encoding scheme is coupled with Pareto-based multi-objective evolutionary algorithms (MOEAs) for model solving. A case study is presented to demonstrate the methodology. A set of reasonable and non-dominated solutions indicate that the matrix encoding scheme and the corresponding evolutionary operators can be successfully coupled with the MOEAs to produce feasible child solutions. We also find that the involvement of risk analysis has a significant effect on the location decision. The findings show that our work has the potential to ensure the safety and long-term development of the parks.