Multi-criteria method for environmental risk assessment of fuel trade within the first urban mile of Belém (Pará)

ABSTRACT This paper introduces a simple model to assess potential risk of gas stations in urban areas, which takes into account three dimensions of analysis: operational, normative, and environmental. These dimensions are distributed in eight internal and external control variables, which, in turn, are valued by qualitative and quantitative interpretation of easily available local data. The proposed model was applied to evaluate 67 gas stations located within the first urban mile of Belém, Pará, Brazil, which is characterized as the first demarcation of land granted by the Portuguese crown in the foundation of Belém, in 1616, in order to obtain the risk rating for gas station and also to produce the potential risk map for first urban area districts. Results show that most of the gas stations in the first urban mile presents high risk, whereas only a few possesses important and medium risk.