A GIS based analysis for transportation of hazardous materials from different perspectives

Abstract

Transportation of hazardous materials (hazmats) has been calling attention of regulators, hazmat carriers, environmentalist groups and academia for many years. In the hazmat literature, there exists two different hazmat transportation problems for two important decision maker groups. The problem of the first group, namely the regulators, is to minimize the ‘risk’ that is generated by the hazmat carriers. The problem of the second group, namely the hazmat carriers, is to select the routes that minimize their transportation costs. However, there exists another group of Decision Maker that needs to satisfy both of the objectives (transportation ‘risk’ and costs), which in most cases conflict mutually. In this study, we propose solutions to the hazmat transportation problem from both government’s and a hazmat producer and supplier firm’s point of view. We also introduce a new decision-maker type that has been neglected in the hazmat literature.