Transportation of Hazardous Materials in Iran: A Strategic Approach for Decreasing Accidents

Abstract

Abstract. "Hazardous materials" refer to those substances that seriously endanger human lives and/or the environment. The transportation of these materials will be inevitable in the increasingly industrialized economy of Iran. Nonetheless, numerous deadly accidents caused by the movement of these materials necessitate the design and implementation of preventive plans on several levels. This article looks into the present condition of transportation of hazardous materials in Iran and the resulting accidents. Optimal condition for the general transportation system of hazardous materials is delineated with due focus on transportation risk as the main parameter. Strategies for reaching the optimal condition are laid out and the impacts of these strategies on the reduction of accidents are analyzed.

Transportation of hazardous materials (hazmat) a literature survey

“…Ronza et al [19], used transportation accident databases to investigate ignition and explosion probabilities of flammable spills. Ghazinoory and Kheirkhah [20] was focused on transportation risk as the main parameter and they developed strategies for reaching the optimal condition and they laid out the impacts of these strategies on the reduction of accidents are analyzed. To make a better understanding of the articles we prepared Table 4 which shows the publication year, author, and name of the article, topic and methodology used in the article.…”

Developing Strategies to Reduce the Risk of Hazardous Materials Transportation in Iran Using the Method of Fuzzy Swot Analysis

“…usually only a qualitative examination of environmental factors is considered; 2. it considers no priority for various factors and strategies; 3. if the number of factors is higher, the number of the adopted strategies will be exponentially increased (for example, if the number of each set of the factors of S, W, O, T is equal to 5, the resulting number of the combined strategies will be around 100 which would make the selection of the appropriate strategy very diffi cult); 4. it does not consider the vagueness of the factors. In the evaluation of the major factors aff ecting the risk of hazardous materials transportation in Iran (Ghazinoory and Kheirkhah 2008), we can see that it is not possible to clearly diff erentiate the factors either they are strengths or weaknesses and/or opportunities or threats. For example, devising new regulations and the increased government's focus on the transportation of HM over recent years (for the fi rst time) is strength, however, to some degree it could be considered as weakness (as fi rst time regulations have unforeseen consequences).…”

“…'Hazardous materials' refer to substances that seriously endanger human lives and/or the environment (Jovanović et al 2009;Ghazinoory and Kheirkhah 2008;Batarlienė 2007 and2008;Briedytė 2000;Leonelli et al 2000). Th ese materials are usually grouped into 9 categories including gases, fl ammable liquids, fl ammable no liquids, oxidants, explosives, acidic materials, poisonous and contaminated materials, radioactive substances and other hazardous materials.…”

“…One of the most important methods of strategic planning is the SWOT analysis method (Learned et al 1965). In our previous paper (Ghazinoory and Kheirkhah 2008), we applied the SWOT method for developing risk reduction strategies for hazardous material transportation in Iran. Th ese strategies were laid out based on the non quantitative analysis of eff ective factors and by taking the advantage of the experiences and intuitive judgments of managers and decision makers.…”

Development of methodology for the selection of routes for the movement of vehicles transporting dangerous goods in terms of risk management

“…Методе које су веома једноставне за коришћење, разумљиве и са високим степеном поузданости утврђивања нивоа ризика су развијене од стране (Hwang, 2001;Høj, 2002;Taylor, 2002;Rao et al, 2004;Bubbico et al, 2004;Huang, 2005;Fabiano et al, 2005;Ghazinoory and Kheirkhah, 2008), а постоје и методе које су прилагођене за подршку приликом доношења одлука и које су намењене просторном планирању (Јовановић, 2000;Raj and Pritchard, 2000;Spadoni et al, 2000;Bottelberghs, 2000;Lin, 2001;Gheorghe et al, 2005).…”