Abstract
Hazardous materials (hazmat) transportation represents, since decades, one of the main issues in the accidental risk assessment and management on road network, above all, in urban areas. This kind of transport counts a small share in respect to the overall freight transport by road in EU-28, but it continues to arouse interest due to the catastrophic consequences that its involvement may concern in case of accidents.
This paper presents the development of an ICT based system to detect constantly the hazmat vehicles on the roads and to map, in real time, the potential impact area generated by the specific transported product in case of road accident. The proposed system has been realized in the framework of the European Project “LOSE+”, (Logistic and Safety of freight transport) financed by the European Regional Development Fund (FESR) in the framework of the Interreg Italy-France Maritime Programme 2014-2020.
The LOSE+ system consists of two main components: firstly, a network of cameras has been installed on the main arterial roads in the city of Genoa, regional capital of Liguria Region (Italy), along the coastal area near the port gates; secondly, a web-GIS platform, which in real time, provides the users with georeferenced maps related to the potential impact area of a possible accident, which involved the identified hazmat vehicles. Furthermore, the map images may be overlapped to other significant layers related to the land use and to sensible and vulnerable targets on the territory, such as hospitals or schools, modelled by the (Short-Cut Method, 2005) for the computation of the consequences analysis. The proposed LOSE+LAB system aims at providing to Public Authorities a smart tool to monitor and control hazmat circulation.
