The Netherlands has adopted a strong criteria-based approach for evaluating safety in facility siting. The External Safety [Establishments] Decree, (known by the Dutch acronym BEVI, and such implementing regulations as the External Safety Order (REVI) establish specific safety criteria, as well as procedures for modeling and calculating safety risks. The Netherlands Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning, and the Environment (VROM) created a five-step process for risk assessment:
- Incident probabilities. Evaluating safety-risk scenarios and establishing event-probability estimates for a quantitative risk assessment.
- Environmental influences: Considering weather conditions and other environmental factors that could affect the risk assessment, including the probability of such effects actually occurring.
- Long-term exposure. Calculating environmental concentrations from a toxic release, and the resulting long-term implications for local populations.
- Probability of fatalities. Estimating the likelihood and number of fatalities implied by the various incident models, including those resulting from exposure to toxic substances, heat, and explosions.
- Geospatial site diagram. Based on all considerations, diagramming risk factors at the proposed site, incorporating topographic and structural features and demographic data, to calculate and graphically express physical risk exposures.
VROM has further provided physical and toxicological models for quantifying and assessing safety risks, known as the TNO Green, Yellow, and Purple books (PGS 1, 2 and 3). This systematic framework, including specific safety criteria and analytic methods, allows industrial siting in the Netherlands to occur in an objective and quantitative process, and minimizes the chance that projects will be held hostage to protracted and unproductive safety debate.
