DANGEROUS AREAS SUBJECT TO ACCIDENTS INVOLVING THE TRANSPORTATION OF HAZARDOUS PRODUCTS IN THE STATE OF ALAGOAS STRETCH OF BR-101 HIGHWAY

Abstract

This paper is the first of three steps to identify the environmentally high-risk areas subject to accidents involving shipments of hazardous products routed through BR-101 Highway in the State of Alagoas. It addresses the integration of variables that directly define the areas that pose risk to accidents occurrence in which chemical products are transported. In addition to identify these areas, it seeks to understand their relationships with the accidents. The database used the 1:50,000 scale and was composed of four vector maps corresponding to rainfall intensity, sinuosity of the highway, concentration of pockets of wildfires, and potential fog. The data were converted to the raster structure allowing the integration in the QGIS software using a multicriteria analysis based on weighted average. The results showed that 42% of the analyzed area of 2,370.66 km² corresponds to the Medium Potential level, 31% to the Medium Potential and 27% to the Low Potential level. As a conclusion, the rainfall intensity and the sinuosity of the highway indices were the main parameters responsible for the determination of the stretches which present the highest degree of hazard.