Historically, inland marine transportation has been one of the most efficient and reliable modes of commercial freight transportation. However, hazardous material shipments have become more common on inland waterways, creating concerns about the dissemination of shipment information to land-based emergency responders immediately following an incident. Marine transportation accidents have demonstrated that a spill involving hazardous materials near a major urban area can have devastating consequences. For these reasons a prototypical decision support system for inland marine transportation risk management has been developed. The system is designed to support real-time response as well as planning decisions such as risk resource allocation and evaluation of potential response strategies. It can be applied to barge accidents as well as counterterrorism planning activities. The system is based on the integration of geographic information systems (GIS), database management systems, Global Positioning Systems, and the Internet. In the event of an incident, this system enables en route responders to view incident details via an Internet GIS map service. The map service contains data that describe land use, population, and dispersion results for air and surface water at downstream intakes. To illustrate system capability, a recent accident is re-created to show how the response could have been improved with system access. A case study showing planning applications is also provided.
Abstract