Abstract
Aim: The aim of this paper is to assess the state of implementation in Poland of the current doctrine for the prevention of major industrial accidents in the context of providing safety distance in the process of shaping the spatial order.
Introduction: The obligation to perform an analysis and assessment of the risk of a major industrial accident lies above all with operators of upper-tier establishments. The security reports for such establishments contain detailed assumptions and the description of the analytical evaluation and risk assessment process and present its results together with their graphical visualisation. One of the most important elements of such a risk assessment is the identification of representative emergency events developed in representative emergency scenarios. The end value of the risk analysis and its evaluation depends on the degree of their accuracy and relevance for the type of establishment and industrial process parameters.
Methodology: The research conducted for the purposes of this article included a review of the legislation and available guidelines, an analysis of safety reports and data contained in them on representative emergency scenarios in 18 establishments with a high risk of a major industrial accident in the Mazowieckie Voivodeship.
Conclusions: The national land use and spatial planning system does not take into account the assumptions of the doctrine of prevention of major industrial accidents. There is no specific risk assessment methodology, resulting in individual risk assessments in safety reports being based on non-uniform rules, and thereby discrepancies between similar establishments. There is a lack of standardisation of requirements regarding the presentation of analysis results and risk assessments, in particular with regard to the ranges of thermal radiation, overpressure and toxicity. As a result, these results are presented arbitrarily in a way that prevents their clear interpretation. The exact interpolation of data is impossible without the use of specific software. The results of the risk analysis performed in 2017 for the Mazowieckie Voivodeship showed that the area affected by the upper-tier establishments with a high risk of a major accident outside of their territory in the Mazowieckie Voivodeship is approx. 2,300 ha. An important problem is also the lack of national guidelines for establishing safety distances for land use and spatial planning purposes, which means that the above-mentioned area is subject to certain types of land use, disregarding or providing insufficient attention to information on the impact of major industrial accidents.
Keywords: major industrial accident, representative emergency scenario, safety distance, land use and spatial planning
Type of article: review article