Day 32: July 17, 2013

I spent the entire morning working on the crude oil FRA-PHMSA database. I found that in total there have been 9 accidents (crash or derailment) of train that were transporting crude oil since 1990. This number is much larger (269) if we consider all the incident releases (not only accidents). I made some graphs and charts that show some basic characteristics of this incidents. FIG12, one of the most interesting figures that I obtained, shows the number of crude oil release incidents reported to PHMSA per year (2003-2013). 

On the afternoon I met with Chen-Yu and we reviewed my first three modules. He made some very significant suggestions and formatting comments. I spent the rest of the day working on these. Between tomorrow and friday I plan on finishing the preliminary database (if I have time I plan to supplement it with the NTSB reports) and the 4th presentation.

FIG12: Number of crude oil release incidents per year.
*the value for 2013 is an estimation 

Today:

-Work on presentation 4: "Case study introduction, justification"                       (no time)                

-Work with ArcMap to obtain the necessary maps for the presentation               (to be finished)

-Work on the Crude Oil FRA-PHMSA database                                                 (to be finished)

Next day:

-Work on presentation 4: "Case study introduction, justification"                                        

-Work with ArcMap to obtain the necessary maps for the presentation

-Work on the Crude Oil FRA-PHMSA database

-Attend the Safety group meeting