Comparison of human health and safety loss due to corroded gas pipeline failure in rural and urban areas: a case study in Malaysia

Abstract

Consequence assessment is an integral part of the risk assessment process. There aremany types of consequences loss due to pipeline failure such as asset loss, environmental loss,production loss, and human health and safety loss (HHSL). This paper studies the comparison ofHHSL between rural and urban areas due to pipeline failure subject to corrosion. The damage areaof the explosion was calculated using Aloha software by considering the details of the selected sitessuch as atmospheric and demographics conditions. The HHSL was calculated using a mathematicalequation of quantitative risk assessment in terms of the number of fatalities or injuries or both. Theresults of the assessments from rural and urban areas were then compared with one another toidentify any significant dissimilarity. This study shows that there was a possibility to improve thedecisive value of risk by implementing the proposed approach in consequence assessment inMalaysia.