Hazmat Situations and Deployments Map Is Excellent Tool for Logistics Professionals

Guest Post By Dr. Robert Gordon, faculty member at American Public University

The North American Hazmat Situations and Deployments Map is a free public service website provided by GlobalIncidentMap.com. It provides worldwide hazardous incident information, making it an excellent research tool for forward and reverse logistics professionals and an outstanding source for historical incident information for lessons learned. Started as a repository for information related to hazardous incidents, it now encompasses a growing number of potential threats or issues. 

Information beyond hazardous incidents is included, such as news, Amber Alerts, forest fires, disease outbreaks, gang activity, border security, presidential threats, earthquakes, drug interdiction, aviation (non-terror), food and medicine, and human trafficking incidents. The website also provides safety, security, and threat monitoring with location information being listed for each incident. 

However, some sections of the website are not free. The sections with more sensitive information are only available to pre-screened individuals who complete an application and pay a fee. 

The public information provided is robust and should be consulted by anyone in the business of logistics.  One should have this resource available when considering the transportation of hazardous materials to help with trip planning, researching spill response, and investigating lessons learned about the transport of dangerous goods.

About the Author

Dr. Robert Lee Gordon is currently an associate professor with American Public University System in its Reverse Logistics Management program. He has published four books, three regarding project management and one regarding reverse logistics in addition to dozens of articles. Dr. Gordon curates a reverse logistics topic at http://www.scoop.it/t/reverse-logistics-by-robert-gordon2.