Application of a Blockchain Enabled Model in Disaster Aids Supply Network Resilience

The disaster area is a dynamic environment. The bottleneck in distributing the supplies may be from the damaged infrastructure or the unavailability of accurate information about the required amounts. The success of the disaster response network is based on collaboration, coordination, sovereignty, and equality in relief distribution. Therefore, a reliable dynamic communication system is required to facilitate the interactions, enhance the knowledge for the relief operation, prioritize, and coordinate the goods distribution. One of the promising innovative technologies is blockchain technology which enables transparent, secure, and real-time information exchange and automation through smart contracts. This study analyzes the application of blockchain technology on disaster management resilience. The influences of this most promising application on the disaster aid supply network resilience combined with the Internet of Things (IoT) and Dynamic Voltage Frequency Scaling (DVFS) algorithm are explored employing a network-based simulation. The theoretical analysis reveals an advancement in disaster-aids supply network strategies using smart contracts for collaborations. The simulation study indicates an enhance in resilience by improvement in collaboration and communication due to more time-efficient processing for disaster supply management. From the investigations, insights have been derived for researchers in the field and the managers interested in practical implementation

Assessing vulnerability and modelling assistance: using demographic indicators of vulnerability and agent-based modelling to explore emergency flooding relief response

Flooding is a significant concern for much of the UK and is recognised as a primary threat by most local councils. Those in society most often deemed vulnerable: the elderly, poor or sick, for example, often see their level of vulnerability increase during hazard events. A greater knowledge of the spatial distribution of vulnerability within communities is key to understanding how a population may be impacted by a hazard event. Vulnerability indices are regularly used – in conjunction with needs assessments and on-the-ground research – to target service provision and justify resource allocation. Past work on measuring and mapping vulnerability has been limited by a focus on income-related indicators, a lack of consideration of accessibility, and the reliance on proprietary data. The Open Source Vulnerability Index (OSVI) encompasses an extensive range of vulnerability indicators supported by the wider literature and expert validation and provides data at a sufficiently fine resolution that can identify vulnerable populations. Findings of the OSVI demonstrate the potential cascading impact of a flood hazard as it impacts an already vulnerable population: exacerbating pre-existing vulnerabilities, limiting capabilities and restricting accessibility and access to key services. The OSVI feeds into an agent-based model (ABM) that explores the capacity of the British Red Cross (BRC) to distribute relief during flood emergencies using strategies based upon the OSVI. A participatory modelling approach was utilised whereby the BRC were included in all aspects of the model development. The major contribution of this work is the novel synthesis of demographics analysis, vulnerability mapping and geospatial simulation. The project contributes to the growing understanding of vulnerability and response management within the NGO sector. It is hoped that the index and model produced will allow responder organisations to run simulations of similar emergency events and adjust strategic response plans accordingly

Sourcing in humanitarian logistics: local, regional, and global approaches

Sourcing and procurement of materials and services is a vital part of humanitarian logistics. Humanitarian organisations tend to combine local sourcing and international approaches, resulting in considerable complexity. This paper establishes a better understanding of the factors that influence sourcing decisions in humanitarian supply chains. 38 semi-structured interviews were conducted with individuals involved in both developmental and emergency humanitarian responses. Findings show that the philosophy of a particular humanitarian organisation has a considerable effect on their sourcing strategy, in addition to more practical issues such as local availability of goods and services, and quality control

Public-private perspectives on supply chains of essential goods in crisis management

Public authorities are responsible to maintain the population’s supply with essential goods like food or drugs at any time. Such goods are produced, transported and sold by companies in supply chains. Past supply crises all over the world have showcased numerous examples of spontaneous collaboration between public authorities and companies in supply chains. However, insights on formal collaboration which is agreed upon in the preparedness phase is rare in both practice and literature. Therefore, this dissertation’s first research objective is to identify under which circumstances companies are most willing to collaborate with public authorities. In this context, public authorities\u27 and companies\u27 characteristics, resources and roles in a collaboration are identified from literature research as well as real-life cases in Study A. Study B empirically determines companies\u27 preferred preconditions for collaboration: Companies value the continuity of their business processes and expect to be compensated monetarily or by lifted restrictions. The second research objective is to develop collaborative supply chain concepts and evaluate them from public and private perspectives. Study C develops a collaboration concept in a real-time setting in which commercial trucks are jointly re-routed into crisis regions. In Study D, public authorities coordinate tactical use of commercial last-mile delivery vehicles for the home supply with food and drugs. In Study E, strategic collaboration in using dual-use warehouses is investigated with a focus on logistics networks. Study F determines the impact of demand shortfalls and payment term extensions on financial and physical flows in food supply chains. In Studies C-F, the main drivers for effectiveness and efficiency are investigated. By examining collaboration between companies and public authorities in supply crises, this dissertation contributes to the research streams of supply chain risk management and so-called extreme supply chain management. The results provide public decision-makers with insights into companies\u27 motivation to engage in public crisis management. The developed collaborative supply chain concepts serve public authorities as a basis for collaboration design and companies as starting points for integrating public-private collaboration into their endeavors to make supply chains more resilient

Comparative analysis of spring flood risk reduction measures in Alaska, United States and the Sakha Republic, Russia

Thesis (Ph.D.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2017River ice thaw and breakup are an annual springtime phenomena in the North. Depending on regional weather patterns and river morphology, breakups can result in catastrophic floods in exposed and vulnerable communities. Breakup flood risk is especially high in rural and remote northern communities, where flood relief and recovery are complicated by unique geographical and climatological features, and limited physical and communication infrastructure. Proactive spring flood management would significantly minimize the adverse impacts of spring floods. Proactive flood management entails flood risk reduction through advances in ice jam and flood prevention, forecasting and mitigation, and community preparedness. With the goal to identify best practices in spring flood risk reduction, I conducted a comparative case study between two flood-prone communities, Galena in Alaska, United States and Edeytsy in the Sakha Republic, Russia. Within a week from each other, Galena and Edeytsy sustained major floods in May 2013. Methods included focus groups with the representatives from flood managing agencies, surveys of families impacted by the 2013 floods, observations on site, and archival review. Comparative parameters of the study included natural and human causes of spring floods, effectiveness of spring flood mitigation and preparedness strategies, and the role of interagency communication and cooperation in flood risk reduction. The analysis revealed that spring flood risk in Galena and Edeytsy results from complex interactions among a series of natural processes and human actions that generate conditions of hazard, exposure, and vulnerability. Therefore, flood risk in Galena and Edeytsy can be reduced by managing conditions of ice-jam floods, and decreasing exposure and vulnerability of the at-risk populations. Implementing the Pressure and Release model to analyze the vulnerability progression of Edeytsy and Galena points to common root causes at the two research sites, including colonial heritage, unequal distribution of resources and power, top-down governance, and limited inclusion of local communities in the decision-making process. To construct an appropriate flood risk reduction framework it is important to establish a dialogue among the diverse stakeholders on potential solutions, arriving at a range of top-down and bottom-up initiatives and in conjunction selecting the appropriate strategies. Both communities have progressed in terms of greater awareness of the hazard, reduction in vulnerabilities, and a shift to more reliance on shelter-in-place. However, in neither community have needed improvements in levee protection been completed. Dialogue between outside authorities and the community begins earlier and is more intensive for Edeytsy, perhaps accounting for Edeytsy's more favorable rating of risk management and response than Galena's

Facility location optimization model for emergency humanitarian logistics

Since the 1950s, the number of natural and man-made disasters has increased exponentially and the facility location problem has become the preferred approach for dealing with emergency humanitarian logistical problems. To deal with this challenge, an exact algorithm and a heuristic algorithm have been combined as the main approach to solving this problem. Owing to the importance that an exact algorithm holds with regard to enhancing emergency humanitarian logistical facility location problems, this paper aims to conduct a survey on the facility location problems that are related to emergency humanitarian logistics based on both data modeling types and problem types and to examine the pre- and post-disaster situations with respect to facility location, such as the location of distribution centers, warehouses, shelters, debris removal sites and medical centers. The survey will examine the four main problems highlighted in the literature review: deterministic facility location problems, dynamic facility location problems, stochastic facility location problems, and robust facility location problems. For each problem, facility location type, data modeling type, disaster type, decisions, objectives, constraints, and solution methods will be evaluated and real-world applications and case studies will then be presented. Finally, research gaps will be identified and be addressed in further research studies to develop more effective disaster relief operations

Essays on Supply Chain Economic Networks for Disaster Management Inspired by the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic, which was declared by the World Health Organization on March 11, 2020, negatively impacted virtually all economic and social activities across the globe. As of March 7, 2022, more than 6 million deaths have been associated with COVID-19 disease. This health disaster, unlike many other disasters, is not limited to time or location. It has resulted in intense global competition for many essential products, from Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to ventilators and vaccines and food products. In this dissertation, I construct, analyze, and quantitatively solve a spectrum of supply chain economic network models inspired by realities in the COVID-19 pandemic in four essays. In this dissertation, I first develop a game theory network model for integrating financial and logistical challenges that humanitarian organizations involved in disaster management are faced with. This part of the dissertation illustrates how game theory can be utilized in the modeling and analysis of the behavior of multiple decision-makers that interact with each other in disaster supply chain economic networks under different constraints. I, subsequently, construct the first Generalized Nash Equilibrium (GNE) model with stochastic demands to model competition among organizations at demand points for medical supplies inspired by the COVID-19 pandemic. The theoretical constructs are provided, and a Variational Equilibrium is utilized to enable alternative variational inequality formulations. Then, I delve more deeply into an important characteristic of disasters, that of uncertainty, by developing a two-stage stochastic game theory network model. Specifically, the first multistage stochastic GNE model is constructed for the study of competition among multiple countries for limited supplies of medical items in the disaster preparedness and response phases in the COVID-19 pandemic. Illustrative examples and algorithmically solved numerical examples, inspired by the need for N95 masks and ventilators, are presented. Finally, I turn to a key aspect of pandemic disaster management, which is the evaluation of trade instruments that governments have been applying during the pandemic to protect their citizens. Specifically, a unified variational inequality framework in the context of spatial price network equilibrium problems is constructed that focuses on a plethora of essential products, that are in high demand in the pandemic, but short in supply globally. The model allows one to seamlessly introduce various trade measures, including tariffs, quotas, as well as price floors and ceilings

Pedestrian, Crowd, and Evacuation Dynamics

This contribution describes efforts to model the behavior of individual pedestrians and their interactions in crowds, which generate certain kinds of self-organized patterns of motion. Moreover, this article focusses on the dynamics of crowds in panic or evacuation situations, methods to optimize building designs for egress, and factors potentially causing the breakdown of orderly motion.Comment: This is a review paper. For related work see http://www.soms.ethz.c

Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation: Special Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

This Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation (SREX) has been jointly coordinated by Working Groups I (WGI) and II (WGII) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The report focuses on the relationship between climate change and extreme weather and climate events, the impacts of such events, and the strategies to manage the associated risks. The IPCC was jointly established in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), in particular to assess in a comprehensive, objective, and transparent manner all the relevant scientific, technical, and socioeconomic information to contribute in understanding the scientific basis of risk of human-induced climate change, the potential impacts, and the adaptation and mitigation options. Beginning in 1990, the IPCC has produced a series of Assessment Reports, Special Reports, Technical Papers, methodologies, and other key documents which have since become the standard references for policymakers and scientists.This Special Report, in particular, contributes to frame the challenge of dealing with extreme weather and climate events as an issue in decisionmaking under uncertainty, analyzing response in the context of risk management. The report consists of nine chapters, covering risk management; observed and projected changes in extreme weather and climate events; exposure and vulnerability to as well as losses resulting from such events; adaptation options from the local to the international scale; the role of sustainable development in modulating risks; and insights from specific case studies