TY - JOUR
T1 - Risk hotspot of chemical accidents based on spatial analysis in Ulsan, South Korea
AU - Yu, Hangnan
AU - Lee, Woo Kyun
AU - Sohn, Jong Ryeul
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Korea Ministry of Environment (MOE), under the Chemical Accident Prevention Technology Development Project [ 20150019500001 ] and the International Research & Development Program of the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning (Grant number: 2018K1A3A7A03089842 ). The authors would like to thank the China Scholarship Council for the financial support to the research.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2020/3
Y1 - 2020/3
N2 - The chemical industry is one of the major industries driving the Korean economy. However, increased chemical use accompanied by obsolete equipment and careless management has promoted the occurrence of chemical accidents. Therefore, to develop a preventive planning that can minimize human injury and economic losses caused by possible accidents, chemical risk hotspots should be identified. This study proposed a methodology based on geographical information system (GIS) and remote sensing (RS) to map risk hotspots in Ulsan, South Korea. Considering causes and effects of accidents, four categories were analyzed from a physical and social perspective: source of pollution (chemical plants and accidents), catalyst of pollution (wind speed and land surface temperature), receptor (population and residential area), and coping ability (distance to the nearest hospital, fire station, and main road). The results showed that the chemical risk hotspot covers at least 16 dongs of Ulsan and involves approximately 400,000 citizens, which represent 38% of the city's population. In addition, issues such as aging factories, contaminated environments, and lack of safety education further increase the chemical risk. Therefore, regular safety monitoring of chemical plants and their surroundings is essential to reduce future risks in this area.
AB - The chemical industry is one of the major industries driving the Korean economy. However, increased chemical use accompanied by obsolete equipment and careless management has promoted the occurrence of chemical accidents. Therefore, to develop a preventive planning that can minimize human injury and economic losses caused by possible accidents, chemical risk hotspots should be identified. This study proposed a methodology based on geographical information system (GIS) and remote sensing (RS) to map risk hotspots in Ulsan, South Korea. Considering causes and effects of accidents, four categories were analyzed from a physical and social perspective: source of pollution (chemical plants and accidents), catalyst of pollution (wind speed and land surface temperature), receptor (population and residential area), and coping ability (distance to the nearest hospital, fire station, and main road). The results showed that the chemical risk hotspot covers at least 16 dongs of Ulsan and involves approximately 400,000 citizens, which represent 38% of the city's population. In addition, issues such as aging factories, contaminated environments, and lack of safety education further increase the chemical risk. Therefore, regular safety monitoring of chemical plants and their surroundings is essential to reduce future risks in this area.
KW - Chemical risk mapping
KW - Geographical information system
KW - Remote sensing
KW - Spatial analysis
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85075013656&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.ssci.2019.104544
DO - 10.1016/j.ssci.2019.104544
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85075013656
SN - 0925-7535
VL - 123
JO - Safety Science
JF - Safety Science
M1 - 104544
ER -
