Towards a Decision Support System for Real Time Risk Assessment of Hazardous Material Transport on Road

Several emerging telematics technologies allow a new definition of the risk caused by the transport on road of hazardous material (hazmat), which can be more related to space and time varying factors. Since there are many varying factors (for example, the state of the road, of the weather, of the driver, of the hazardous material) which affects its degree, hazmat transport risk is by definition dynamic, so that conventional definitions of natural and industrial hazard and risk are not adequate. In addition, while the management systems related to the real-time planning of hazmat routing can be oriented towards the achievement of a minimum risk, on the other hand, with their decisions, they are the main actors that do influence the current value of risk on a territory. These aspects are discussed throughout this work and a proposal of decision support system integrating all these aspects is suggested, describing the necessary steps to develop it. Although the DSS is at a preliminary stage of development, an introductive demonstration of dynamic risk assessment is shown on a specific territory, namely the western districts of Liguria region (Italy) which are heavily interested by hazmat traffic, and characterized by transport infrastructures generally quite close to civil and industrial settlements.