Risks associated with the transportation of hazardous materials on public roads

Gdańsk University of Technology, Gabriela Narutowicza 11/12, 80-233 Gdańsk, Poland

^* Corresponding author: eligiusz.mieloszyk@pg.edu..pl

Abstract

A significant proportion of the transport of hazardous materials is carried out on public roads. Therefore, the safety of such transport is becoming increasingly important. Every catastrophe involving hazardous materials has a negative impact on direct road users and the surrounding environment, becauses its range is mostly not local. It follows that in the event of such catastrophe, its effects should be minimized. This is possible only when we know the mechanism of spreading effects of a catastrophe involving hazardous materials. Those effects are spread by two basic media: ground (in particular water in the ground) and air. Sometimes those effects are spread by water, while the catastrophe has occurred near a water reservoir or watercourse with a free flow surface. In extreme cases, this can even lead to an ecological disaster. Dynamic systems, especially those with distributed parameters, can be used to describe the mechanism of the disaster's spread. Properties of phenomena accompanying analyzed catastrophes are well reflected in their linear or non-linear mathematical models [1,2], which are analyzed by various operator methods [3].