Vulnerable Areas to the Occurrence of Accidents Involving Road Transport of Dangerous Products in the State of Alagoas’ Section of Highway BR-101

Abstract

The transport of dangerous chemicals, as an integral part of the production chain, is considered a risk factor for accidents, as accidents can occur anywhere along the route. In this sense, we sought to identify, locate and measure vulnerable areas subject to material, human and environmental damage in the area of influence of Highway BR-101 that crosses the territory of the state of Alagoas. The understanding of vulnerable areas addressed in this paper adds the factors susceptibility and criticality since they are composed of variables that have potential characteristics of being negatively impacted when exposing the physical and human resources to dangerous products. These factors were integrated into a geographic information system environment, through the use of multicriteria analysis, through the integrative structure of weighted average. Such procedure resulted in a synoptic map consisting of four classes, ranked by levels of vulnerability, ranging from very low to high. Of these, the combined classes of low and medium vulnerability represented 79,44% of the studied area. In general, these areas cover lands used for agropastoral activities, such as the extensive rearing of cattle and the cultivation of sugarcane. The high vulnerability class encompasses a proportion of 18,76% of the same surface area analyzed and water bodies, human settlements, and nature conservation units present themselves as too critical locations in situations of contact with the implications of dangerous products. Finally, we conclude that the criticality variable tends to define the areas classified as most vulnerable.