Investigating US-Mexico Border Community Vulnerability to Industrial Hazards

A community's vulnerability to industrial hazards is a function of human settlement patterns, demographics, and physical characteristics of the hazard. At both the conceptual and practical levels these factors must be linked in space and time to fully understand the environmental impact of a hazard on the population. This paper develops a methodology which analyzes community vulnerability by integrating a population vulnerability model with a model of dense gas dispersion using a common geographic information system framework. A study area along the U.S.-Mexico border, Ambos Nogales, is used to demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach. Two industrial locations are compared. The results show that geographic proximity to a hazard is a necessary, but not always sufficient, measure of the potential impact of a hazard on the community. Based on these results, suggestions concerning land-use policy and emergency response planning have been made for industrial locations in Ambos Nogales

Cartography · Computer security · Demographics · Environmental planning · Environmental resource management · Geographic information system · Geography · Hazard · Population · Settlement (finance · Sociology · Vulnerability (computing · Vulnerability assessment · Computer Science · Demography · Disaster Management and Resilience · Environmental Science · Urban Transport and Accessibility · Ecology