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-capabilitiesnamed ENSAD v2.0is designed and developed using state-ofthe-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.

Comparative Risk Assessment for Fossil Energy Chains Using Bayesian Model Averaging

“…The ENergy-related Severe Accident Database (ENSAD) collects accidents in the energy sector that occurred in various energy chains since 1970, taking a worldwide and full-chain perspective [46][47][48]. In ENSAD, data on all energy-related accidents is collected and classified into energy chains, e.g., Coal (including Lignite), Oil and Natural Gas, and activities within those chains.…”

“…In general, an energy chain may comprise the following stages: exploration, extraction, processing, storage, transportation, power and/or heat generation, waste treatment and disposal. However, not all these stages are relevant for a specific energy chain [48]. In addition, other type of information, such as georeferenced location, types of consequences (e.g., human health, environmental and economic impacts), etc., are coded in ENSAD to achieve a comprehensive global coverage of severe accidents [48].…”

“…However, not all these stages are relevant for a specific energy chain [48]. In addition, other type of information, such as georeferenced location, types of consequences (e.g., human health, environmental and economic impacts), etc., are coded in ENSAD to achieve a comprehensive global coverage of severe accidents [48]. ENSAD has been developed using proprieatory (commercial) and publicly available (non-commercial) primary information sources, such as industrial databases, technical reports, journal and newspaper articles, websites, etc., ENSAD focuses on severe accidents since industries, stakeholders, decision-makers, etc., are more concerned about them, although small accidents have been collected for specific projects [49].…”

“…In ENSAD, seven consequence types (e.g., ≥5 fatalities, ≥10 injuries, etc.) are taken into account, and an accident is considered to be severe if it meets the threshold value for at least one of them [48]. Although different types of consequences are collected in ENSAD, in this study, particular attention has been given to fatalities in fossil energy chains for the period 1970-2016.…”

Assessing the Performance of the European Natural Gas Network for Selected Supply Disruption Scenarios Using Open-Source Information

“…The Energy-related Severe Accident Database (ENSAD) [22,23,59] is used for the estimation of technical failure frequencies of natural gas accidents. ENSAD is part of a long-term research activity on comparative risk assessment at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI).…”