Risk Assessment of Hazardous Materials Transport: a Review of Research Advances Over the Past Thirty Years

Abstract

In recent years, accidents involving the transport of dangerous goods have occurred frequently, causing numerous casualties and material losses. The risk assessment of this type of transport has been under constant review by researchers and decision-makers. This paper reviews the existing literature, from 1991 to 2020, on models and methods of risk assessment in the transport of hazardous substances, and separates relevant studies based on multimodal transport systems. In addition, an example is considered to analyse the characteristics of each unimodal transport risk assessment model, and a novel detailed classification of risk assessment problems is proposed.

The results indicate that research on the risk assessment model of road transport of hazardous materials is comprehensive, while that based on rail and multimodal transport is deficient.