A First Responder Tool for Rapic, Efficient, and Effective Response to Hazardous Material Incidents

The nightmare scenario in HAZMAT transport (or storage) is an incident in the proximity of a densely populated area. This issue is so critical that Congress has, on a number of occasions, considered restricting HAZMAT transportation, routing it around metropolitan areas. While so far such restrictions have not been implemented, the HAZMAT transportation industry faces mounting legal and insurance challenges since in addition to normal issues with traffic incidents, it is also viewed as a prime target for terrorism. The focus of this effort is HAZMAT incident response. Here we propose to create a system to facilitate timely, efficient, and cost-effective delivery of sophisticated plume or spill dispersion models to HAZMAT response teams in a way that is easily understood, and is therefore usable, by professional responders with no additional specialized training.