TY - JOUR
T1 - Sensitivity analysis of weather variables on offsite consequence analysis tools in South Korea and the United States
AU - Kim, Min Uk
AU - Moon, Kyong Whan
AU - Sohn, Jong Ryeul
AU - Byeon, Sang Hoon
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgments: This study was supported by the development of chemical accident behavior analysis/damage prediction models, and the environmental risk map technology of the Ministry of Environment.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2018/5/18
Y1 - 2018/5/18
N2 - We studied sensitive weather variables for consequence analysis, in the case of chemical leaks on the user side of offsite consequence analysis (OCA) tools. We used OCA tools Korea Offsite Risk Assessment (KORA) and Areal Location of Hazardous Atmospheres (ALOHA) in South Korea and the United States, respectively. The chemicals used for this analysis were 28% ammonia (NH3), 35% hydrogen chloride (HCl), 50% hydrofluoric acid (HF), and 69% nitric acid (HNO3). The accident scenarios were based on leakage accidents in storage tanks. The weather variables were air temperature, wind speed, humidity, and atmospheric stability. Sensitivity analysis was performed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) program for dummy regression analysis. Sensitivity analysis showed that impact distance was not sensitive to humidity. Impact distance was most sensitive to atmospheric stability, and was also more sensitive to air temperature than wind speed, according to both the KORA and ALOHA tools. Moreover, the weather variables were more sensitive in rural conditions than in urban conditions, with the ALOHA tool being more influenced by weather variables than the KORA tool. Therefore, if using the ALOHA tool instead of the KORA tool in rural conditions, users should be careful not to cause any differences in impact distance due to input errors of weather variables, with the most sensitive one being atmospheric stability.
AB - We studied sensitive weather variables for consequence analysis, in the case of chemical leaks on the user side of offsite consequence analysis (OCA) tools. We used OCA tools Korea Offsite Risk Assessment (KORA) and Areal Location of Hazardous Atmospheres (ALOHA) in South Korea and the United States, respectively. The chemicals used for this analysis were 28% ammonia (NH3), 35% hydrogen chloride (HCl), 50% hydrofluoric acid (HF), and 69% nitric acid (HNO3). The accident scenarios were based on leakage accidents in storage tanks. The weather variables were air temperature, wind speed, humidity, and atmospheric stability. Sensitivity analysis was performed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) program for dummy regression analysis. Sensitivity analysis showed that impact distance was not sensitive to humidity. Impact distance was most sensitive to atmospheric stability, and was also more sensitive to air temperature than wind speed, according to both the KORA and ALOHA tools. Moreover, the weather variables were more sensitive in rural conditions than in urban conditions, with the ALOHA tool being more influenced by weather variables than the KORA tool. Therefore, if using the ALOHA tool instead of the KORA tool in rural conditions, users should be careful not to cause any differences in impact distance due to input errors of weather variables, with the most sensitive one being atmospheric stability.
KW - ALOHA
KW - KORA
KW - Offsite consequence analysis
KW - Sensitivity analysis
KW - Weather variable
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85047255909&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/ijerph15051027
DO - 10.3390/ijerph15051027
M3 - Article
C2 - 29783709
AN - SCOPUS:85047255909
SN - 1661-7827
VL - 15
JO - International journal of environmental research and public health
JF - International journal of environmental research and public health
IS - 5
M1 - 1027
ER -
