Process Safety and Environmental Protection 9 9 ( 2 0 1 6 ) 137–148 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Process Safety and Environmental Protection journal h om ep age: www.elsevier.com/locate/ps ep Proximity as an integral factor in the evaluation of the territorial risk under the European Seveso Directive: Application in Andalusia (South Spain) M. Suffo a,* , E. Nebot b a Department of Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Design, Science Faculty, Campus de Puerto Real, Universidad de Cádiz, Polígono Río San Pedro s/n, 11510 Puerto Real, Cádiz, Spain b Department of Environmental Technologies, Faculty of Marine and Environmental Sciences, Campus de Puerto Real, Universidad de Cádiz, Polígono Río San Pedro s/n, 11510 Puerto Real, Cádiz, Spain a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 26 June 2015 Received in revised form 19 October 2015 Accepted 23 October 2015 Available online 12 November 2015 Keywords: Proximity Territorial-compatibility Vulnerable receptors Chemical risk Correspondence-analysis Seveso Directive a b s t r a c t In this work, a geostatistical analysis of multivariate character is performed, which is based on the distance between establishments affected by the European Seveso Directive and the type of vulnerable receptors categorized as human, environmental or material. This study reinforces the importance of including the value of proximity, besides others already known and used, such as dangerousness, vulnerability and probability/frequency, in the evaluation of the chemical and environmental risk or simply in the evaluation of territorial compatibil- ity. Data used in the study were a sample taken in the region of Andalusia (Southern Spain) during the year 2013. Likewise, based on the descriptive tables of frequencies, in terms of average proximities, a double ranking of territorial compatibility is provided for the land use and planning (LUP), which affects to establishments, dangerous substances and vulnerable receptors. The multivariate analysis based on the projection on a factorial plane of the cor- respondences reveals hidden relationships of proximity between vulnerable receptors and their relationship with the territorial strata, in a simple and intuitive way. Results obtained here suggest that the methodology can be extrapolated to any other study area, taking into account their particular environmental conditions. © 2015 The Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Major accidents in industrial establishments have negative conse- quences at internal and external level. History has served to warn society about these events, in order to try to prevent and minimize their occurrence. Recent catastrophic accidents, such as those in Enschede (Netherlands, 2000) and Toulouse (France, 2001) are still a matter of debate and analysis due to their severe consequences. There is a com- mon element in these accidents that bind them to the society, which is the fact that a safety distance between the industrial establishment and nearby areas devoted to other activities for public use must be respected (Tugnoli et al., 2013). ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +34 956016114; fax: +34 956 016115. E-mail address: miguel.suffo@uca.es (M. Suffo). The Art 12 of the previous Seveso II Directive “SIID” (Directive 96/82/EC, 1996) included requirements for Land Use Planning (LUP: “Land Use Planning”) (Cozzani et al., 2006; Taveau, 2010). Likewise, the new “Seveso III” (Directive 2012/18/EU, 2012) that will take effect in July 2015, contains in its article 13 the same prerequisite with respect to this discipline and even extends the premises at multiple levels in case that any vulnerable receptors “VR” might result affected, which are now denoted as Threatened Objects “TO” (APELL, 1998). Andalusia is the most populated autonomous community in Spain, with the second largest surface and it has been ranked as the sec- ond one most affected by the number of Seveso establishments. Schmidt-Thomé (2005) defined a ratio that measures the density of http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psep.2015.10.012 0957-5820/© 2015 The Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.