GIS-ABP model for HAZMAT routing with security considerations

In view of the increasing concern in transportation security, there is an urgent need to improve the way trucks carrying hazardous materials (HAZMATs) are being routed on urban and suburban road networks. Routing of such vehicles should not only ensure the safety of travelers in the network, but should also consider the risk of the HAZMAT being used as weapon of mass destruction. This paper attempts to identify and evaluate criteria that may be used to route these vehicles. The criteria considered are related to safety, costs and more importantly, security. A geographic information system (GIS) is used to quantify the factors on each link in the network that contribute to each of the evaluation criteria for a possible route. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is applied to determine the weights of the different criteria in the computation of the relative total costs of the alternate routes. The proposed route evaluation method is demonstrated on a road network in Singapore.