A GIS Tool for Modelling the Effects of Gasoline Station Explosions in Urban Areas

Abstract

Urban regions are under increasing pressure due to the economic, social, and environmental domains with a steady upward trend in the motor vehicle numbers. Consequently, the demand for liquid fuel oil rises, necessitating gasoline station construction both inside and outside cities. Gasoline stations remain more dangerous even with the adoption of contemporary methods for storing petroleum products and stringent construction and operation guidelines. Furthermore, they pose a risk of hazardous fire and explosion to both humans and buildings. A Geographic Information System (GIS) tool has been developed to model the impacts of gasoline station explosions in urban areas. The tool visualizes relevant variables, such as size of the fireball, danger zone of possible self-emitting combustion, impacted zone of the spilled gasoline combustion, zones of human injuries ranging from 1st degree burns to painful sensations on the skin and mucous membranes, and zones of building damage ranging from total destruction to minor damage. Apart from the danger buffer visualization, affected buildings are extracted, and queries are presented to extract the key statistics. The current study applies the developed strategy to gasoline station network in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, as a case study, to assure model applicability. The study produced encouraging results when assessing station explosion scenarios and displaying danger, human injury, and building damage zones. The model has the advantage of assessing a large collection of gasoline stations automatically, saving time and effort for emergency management while analysing large datasets with hundreds of stations and thousands of buildings in real operation.