Domino Effects in the Process Industries

Preface

The chemical industry provides most of the necessities for our modern day lives. Owing to an ever-increasing population and to the associated need for more goods and materials, and due to an increasing requirement for innovation in products and processes, the production of chemicals has known a steep increase during the past decades. Hence, the use, storage, processing, and transportation of hazardous substances are also characterized with an increasing trend. As a result, ever more chemical plants are being built around the world, mostly settled together in integrated industrial parks or in so-called chemical clusters. Thus, a combined increase in activities involving hazardous chemicals and in population densities can be observed ...