Proposing risk equity approaches of risk and distance based in route selection and site location for hazardous material transportation

Abstract

Hazmat transportation raises the concerns of potential risks to humans and the environment due to Hazmat immediate risks. Transport authorities are dealing with the selection of the best approach to share out Hazmat transport risk called risk equity. The main purpose of this study is to develop a procedure to share out Hazmat transport risk as well as to determine the optimum site locations for fuel distribution centers. The routes are selected based on a tradeoff approach between the travelled distance and transport risk associated to the road network. In the proposed two-stage procedure, the risk-based and distance-based approaches have been mathematically formulated in which the first stage obtains the shortest paths for carrying Hazmat and the second stage determines the best site locations for its distribution centers. Following the validation of the proposed procedure by selecting an experimental road network as a case study, the results including routes selection and sites allocation revealed the better outcomes are achieved when minimizing travelled distance is the objective function and accumulated risk is defined as its constraint. Authorities, who deal with Hazmat transport risk equity, are suggested to formulate the problem by minimizing travelled distance subject to tolerated risk.