SARA Reporting Tool
The SARA Risk Radius Analysis Tool is a custom ArcGIS tool developed to assist the Cumberland County Public Safety department in their SARA Tier II reporting. The tool performs a series of analyses on sites with certain quantities of hazardous chemicals. The results of the analysis go into a plan for each site. The user enters in the latitude and longitude coordinates for the facility, information about the facility (name, address, state-issued ID), the chemical the analysis is being performed for, the distance(s) and units for the risk radii buffers, and a folder location for output files.
There are eight Python modules (scripts) comprising the tool:
- SARAReportTool.py obtains the user inputs from the ArcGIS tool’s dialog window, and imports functions from the other modules.
- riskRadius.py converts a latitude and longitude coordinate pair from the WGS 1984 geographic coordinate system into a projected coordinate system, and creates the risk radii (multi-ring buffers).
- floodplainAnalysis.py identifies if the building footprint associated with the facility is within a FEMA floodplain.
- populationEstimate.py loops through each risk radius and calculates the proportional population in each risk radius using U.S. Census block data.
- vulnerableFacilities.py loops through each risk radius and selects any vulnerable facilities within each radius. The selected vulnerable facilities are exported to a Microsoft Excel file.
- createMap.py takes a template ArcMap document and creates a new document centered on the facility and risk radii generated. Various layout elements are updated based upon user inputs. A .pdf export of the map is also generated.
- exportLayersToExcel.py is a helper function that exports the list of vulnerable facilities that intersect each risk radius to Microsoft Excel format.
- errorLogger.py is a helper function that handles reporting errors to the user.