COMPARE: a COMputer Aided Risk Evalutation package

The representation of the accident consequences is of primary importance in the framework of the risk assessment for industrial areas. The use of maps reproducing the spatial distribution of the involved physical parameters leads to an immediate and synoptic representation of the event consequences. Moreover this kind of consequence report is easily readable also by the non-technical people involved in the decisional process for the public acceptance of industrial plants and for the preparation of the emergency plans. Aim of this paper ís to present the structure of an integrated computer package for the evaluation of industrial accident consequences and their graphical representation over a suitable geographic map of the involved area. The package has the capability to store geographical information about the study site in a digital form (vectorial or raster format). The available meteorological data are associated to the map (with the statistical information about wind speed and direction, stability class, etc.). A more detailed plan of the industrial installation is recorded on the geographic-scale map, where the source points are placed. A data base integrated with the map contains the parameters related to the source points (release height, released substance, flow rate, temperature, pressure, etc.). The user can run a consequence model chosen among a set of possible ones with parameters automatically selected from the system or interactively entered. The output of the calculation is a contour plot of the consequences of the analyzed event on the geographic map. Also numerical results for quantitative analysis are provided. The package runs on PC station platform with colour display and math coprocessor and it is based on CAD system