Spatial planning near industrial activities: ‘Handbook for safe design’ and a short introduction on awareness areas
Sub-title: Application of small and large measures in spatial design that ensure greater safety for inhabitants and users.
Country: The Netherlands
Date: 2015
Category: Policy, Plan, Measure
Tags: Land-Use Planning, Industrial Safety, Cooperation between Competent Authorities, Public Participation, Public Access to Information
Organization(s) involved: Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, Urban planners, Environmental Services, Safety Region
The Safe Environment Design programme aims to invite designers and external safety experts and inspire them to collaborate with each other from an early stage in the design process. Safe Environment Design developed seven icons with design principles that urban planners and architects can use. They cover both small and large measures in spatial design that ensure greater safety for inhabitants and users.
Designing for a safe environment has long been one of the tasks of the Dutch urban planner, building fortifications to protect against enemies and dikes to protect against the water. However, the gunpowder disaster in Leiden in 1807 made it painfully clear that hazardous substances can also be an important risk source. Designing in the vicinity of hazardous substances, which are an important risk source, is a challenge. Sources of risk are an establishment where hazardous substances are present or the area associated with the transport of dangerous goods by road, rail, water and pipelines. Depending on the type of hazardous substance, disasters can involve accident scenarios such as fire, explosion or a toxic cloud.
Good examples of cooperation are presented in the “Handbook for safe design” (please see the link below).Rules, calculations and laws can stand in the way of the ideal spatial interpretation. Designers have solved problems in many places in the Netherlands. Urban planners and safety experts explain how, despite a freight track straight through an urban area, they have nevertheless realized a safe school park. The development of a residential area near a shunting yard seemed impossible, but it is getting there.
The new instrument “awareness areas” that are made visible on a map, helps conducting the conversation between management, company, advisers and the environment right at the start of a planning process.
The Handbook “Design for a safe environment”
Video animation on Awareness areas can be found at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsyoK8cfUs0 and its English voiceover translation is available here
Video animation on Awareness areas continued, focusing on a Tradeoff, can be found at:
https://vimeo.com/386981505/7baa35c23b
and its English voiceover translation is available here
Communication between Shell and the residents surrounding Europe’s largest refinery (Pernis, Rotterdam) to enhance safety
Sub-title: Addressing the challenges of local authorities ignoring the buffers required between industry and residential areas
Country: Netherlands (Rotterdam)
Date: 2010
Category: Measures, Tools
Tags: Industry Operators, Developments near to Hazardous Industrial Facilities, Public Participation, Information to the Public, Neighbourhood Council, Emergency Response Exercises
Organization(s) involved: Shell
The details of this good practice can be found at:
The presentation by Shell at the UNECE Joint seminar on land use planning around hazardous industrial sites (11 - 12 November 2010, The Hague, the Netherlands):
For information about the EIB and UNECE Information Repository of Good Practices and Lessons Learned in Land-Use Planning and Industrial Safety and to access case studies from other countries, please visit the navigation page.