Energy-related Severe Accident Database (ENSAD): cloud-based geospatial platform

Abstract

The Energy-related Severe Accident Database (ENSAD) is the most authoritative resource for comparative risk analysis of accidents in the energy sector. Although ENSAD contains comprehensive, worldwide data, it is a non-spatial database in Microsoft Access format. Therefore, spatial characteristics of the data cannot be fully utilised as well as analysed directly. Based on these premises, a new web-based version of ENSAD with GIS-capabilities – named ENSAD v2.0 – is designed and developed using state-of-the-art, open source technologies. The ENSAD v2.0 consists of two main components, i.e. a spatial database and a responsive web application. For the spatial database, the current accident data are georeferenced and migrated from Microsoft Access, using a tiered approach. The responsive web application can be accessed from desktops as well as mobile devices, and provides both a 2D and 3D mapping platform that is developed on cloud-based, serverless architecture. ENSAD v2.0 also allows assigning different user roles with specific access rights, and a public version with advanced visualisation capabilities has also been developed. Lastly, a case study was carried out using a spatial analysis to visualise the potential impact radius of a natural gas pipeline explosion and to assess its consequences in terms of economic damage and casualties.

Keywords

• Energy-related severe accident database
• web-based GIS
• resilience
• cloud computing
• risk assessment