Architectural design for the monitoring of intermodal transportation of hazardous goods

The transportation of hazardous goods is a very important sector affecting the economy of the countries, however, encompassing numerous hazards for the physical and social environment. Moreover, intermodal transportation creates all the necessary requisites for energy savings, and environmental protection, and the member countries of the European Union are encouraged to finance the construction of structures which accommodate the transportation of hazardous cargo in an intermodal environment. This paper aims to present a methodology for the design of an architecture for the monitoring of the intermodal transportation of hazardous cargo. Based on a top-bottom approach, it examines the environment under which the hazardous material is being transported. The main components of a mostly suitable monitoring architecture for the intermodal transportation of hazardous goods are defined. These components mainly refer to the application of advanced technologies for the automatic cargo identification, automatic vehicle/train/vessel positioning, and information and data exchange among users (EDI and telecommunication networks). The overall architectural scheme is designed taking into consideration the integration of a risk module, which plays a very important role in the trip planning process and the emergency situation response operations