TITLE:
Relationships between Potential Risk of Hazardous Material Releases and Socio-Economic Demographic Characteristics Using Geospatial Analysis
AUTHORS:
Seong Nam Hwang, Venu Srivastav Kannegalla
KEYWORDS:
Environmental Hazard, Risk, GIS, Disaster, Hazard Mitigation, Emergency Management, Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) Facilities and Socioeconomic Demographic Characteristics
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Geoscience and Environment Protection,
Vol.9 No.7,
July
21,
2021
ABSTRACT: The problem investigated in this research is about the potential risk of
technological hazards, which poses a perilous threat to humankind and the environment.
Rapid urbanization has been increasing the population density in an area,
elevating the risk of exposure to technological disasters. Therefore, it is
necessary to detect the areas with higher chemical risk to spread awareness
about the potential risk zones and reduce actual damage and casualties
resulting from the hazardous substance events. The basic design of the study
utilizes geospatial analysis to map the TRI (Toxics Release Inventory)
facilities in the communities of Texas to establish a relationship between
potential hazardous material release zones
and the human population at risk. The study identified the vulnerable
counties as well as investigated how those risk areas are related to
race/ethnicity, income and education. The research would contribute to the
policymakers acting on the hazard situation and keep them better prepared for chemical hazards. In addition, it would help the
residents and emergency managers to better understand the circumstance to
mitigate the consequences as well as increase their awareness to be ready for
the uncertainties in the hotspots involved in high risk of the hazards.