TABLE OF CONTENTS "Engineers shall hold paramount the safety, health and welfare of the public in the performance of their professional duties. "
- First canon of the Code of Professional Ethics of the AIChE
Most major hazard disasters have had significant impacts on local communities near to major hazard facility (MHF) sites or along transport routes. Flixborough, Pemex, San Carlos de Rapita and Bhopal are obvious candidates that illustrate the point. Concern regarding land use planning (LUP) around MHFs and the development of appropriate dangerous goods transport routes have been pressing issues for governments, fuelled by vocal representations from the local communities affected by such operations. Much of the regulatory framework in the USA, Europe and Australasia is driven by concern for societal impacts that are reflected in planning decisions on new developments near major hazard operations as well as establishment of major hazard operations near to existing local communities.
Process risk management plays a vital role in the local overall planning issue. This chapter sets out the key factors in land use planning and in particular the role that risk management plays in that process.
The two major operational scenarios which are of key interest are:
fixed site risks (e.g. storage, manufacturing facility)
transport risks (e.g. bulk road or rail tankers of chemicals or petroleum products, gas pipelines or shipping)
Although there are significant differences in their characteristics they share many common elements of analysis, which include consequence analysis and event likelihood.
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