Relief distribution networks : a systematic review

In the last 20 years, Emergency Management has received increasing attention from the scientific community. Meanwhile, the study of relief distribution networks has become one of the most popular topics within the Emergency Management field. In fact, the number and variety of contributions devoted to the design or the management of relief distribution networks has exploded in the recent years, motivating the need for a structured and systematic analysis of the works on this specific topic. To this end, this paper presents a systematic review of contributions on relief distribution networks in response to disasters. Through a systematic and scientific methodology, it gathers and consolidates the published research works in a transparent and objective way. It pursues three goals. First, to conduct an up-to-date survey of the research in relief distribution networks focusing on the logistics aspects of the problem, which despite the number of previous reviews has been overlooked in the past. Second, to highlight the trends and the most promising challenges in the modeling and resolution approaches and, finally, to identify future research perspectives that need to be explored

Mathematical Models in Humanitarian Supply Chain Management: A Systematic Literature Review

In the past decade the humanitarian supply chain (HSC) has attracted the attention of researchers due to the increasing frequency of disasters. The uncertainty in time, location, and severity of disaster during predisaster phase and poor conditions of available infrastructure during postdisaster phase make HSC operations difficult to handle. In order to overcome the difficulties during these phases, we need to assure that HSC operations are designed in an efficient manner to minimize human and economic losses. In the recent times, several mathematical optimization techniques and algorithms have been developed to increase the efficiency of HSC operations. These techniques and algorithms developed for the field of HSC motivate the need of a systematic literature review. Owing to the importance of mathematical modelling techniques, this paper presents the review of the mathematical contributions made in the last decade in the field of HSC. A systematic literature review methodology is used for this paper due to its transparent procedure. There are two objectives of this study: the first one is to conduct an up-to-date survey of mathematical models developed in HSC area and the second one is to highlight the potential research areas which require attention of the researchers

Network restoration and recovery in humanitarian operations: Framework, literature review, and research directions

In the aftermath of large-scale events requiring humanitarian action, critical infrastructure networks in the affected areas, such as electrical power, transportation, telecommunications, water supply, and waste water networks, may be disrupted by the devastating impact of the event. In the short and long term following the event, activities to return these networks to the pre-disaster working state include debris clearance and disposal, infrastructure repair, network reconstruction, road repair and rehabilitation, and snow removal. The costly and complicated nature of these activities has led to an increased level of interest regarding this field in the OR/MS literature over the recent years. In this study, we present the results of a comprehensive overview of the literature on network restoration and recovery in humanitarian operations, and provide a framework to consider this body of literature. We classify the studies in terms of the problems addressed, main decisions, objectives, models, and solution methods for these problems. Based on ongoing work, we also underline potential directions for future research by pointing to the gaps between the needs in the field and the existing body of literature

Online Coordination Mechanism for Road Infrastructure Restoration using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

The goal of this thesis is to study two barriers of efficient road network restoration, namely, the lack of debris information and the lack of coordination among the restoration operations. We develop an integrative online optimization model with a model-based data diffusion component to coordinate three restoration-interdependent operations in the disaster response phases such as damage assessment, road recovery, and relief distribution. The model developed for the damage assessment operation controls the debris data diffusion speed in the integrative framework. This data is periodically shared with an online model developed to prioritize the recovery process for blocked roads. Road prioritization is done in a way to make the highest acceleration in the relief distribution operation. The integrative framework is tested on the road network of Miami-Dade and its performance is compared with an online heuristic benchmark mimicking the performance of the Federal Emergency Management Agency

Solution methodologies for debris : removal during disaster response phase

Ankara : The Department of Industrial Engineering and the Graduate School of Engineering and Science of Bilkent University, 2014.Thesis (Master's) -- Bilkent University, 2014.Includes bibliographical references leaves 79-85.During the disaster response phase of the emergency relief, the aim is to reduce loss of human life by reaching disaster affected areas with relief items as soon as possible. Debris caused by the disaster blocks the roads and prevents emergency aid teams to access the disaster affected regions. Deciding which roads to clean in order to transport relief items is crucial to diminish the negative impact of a disaster on human health. Despite the significance of the problem during response, in the literature debris removal is mostly studied in recovery or reconstruction phases of a disaster. The aim of this study is providing solution methodologies for debris removal problem in response phase. In particular, debris removal activities on certain blocked arcs have to be scheduled in order to reach a set of critical nodes such as schools and hospitals. Two mathematical models are developed with different objectives. The first model aims to minimize the total time spent to reach all critical nodes whereas the second minimizes weighted sum of visiting times where weights indicate the priorities of critical nodes. Since obtaining solutions quickly is important in the early post-disaster, heuristic algorithms are also proposed. Two data sets belonging to Kartal and Bakırk¨oy districts of ˙Istanbul are used to test the mathematical models and heuristics.Berktaş, NihalM.S

Continuity of Operations/Continuity of Government for State-Level Transportation Organizations, Research Report 11-02

The Homeland Security Presidential Directive 20 (HSPD-20) requires all local, state, tribal and territorial government agencies, and private sector owners of critical infrastructure and key resources (CI/KR) to create a Continuity of Operations/Continuity of Government Plan (COOP/COG). There is planning and training guidance for generic transportation agency COOP/COG work, and the Transportation Research Board has offered guidance for transportation organizations. However, the special concerns of the state-level transportation agency’s (State DOT’s) plan development are not included, notably the responsibilities for the entire State Highway System and the responsibility to support specific essential functions related to the State DOT Director’s role in the Governor’s cabinet. There is also no guidance on where the COOP/COG planning and organizing fits into the National Incident Management System (NIMS) at the local or state-level department or agency. This report covers the research conducted to determine how to integrate COOP/COG into the overall NIMS approach to emergency management, including a connection between the emergency operations center (EOC) and the COOP/COG activity. The first section is a presentation of the research and its findings and analysis. The second section provides training for the EOC staff of a state-level transportation agency, using a hybrid model of FEMA’s ICS and ESF approaches, including a complete set of EOC position checklists, and other training support material. The third section provides training for the COOP/COG Branch staff of a state-level transportation agency, including a set of personnel position descriptions for the COOP/COG Branch members

Fairness-Based Transportation Resilience for Communities under Tsunami Hazard

Abstract: Natural disasters such as tsunamis have catastrophic impacts on the functionality and resilience of transportation networks in impacted areas, and they can damage coastal regions hundreds of kilometers away from the earthquake that caused them, resulting in a significant number of casualties. As a result, the ultimate goal of this study was to develop a fair-based evacuation model under tsunami hazards. The proposed fairness-based evacuation model used in this study aimed to give evacuees equal access to emergency facility centers and assembly areas, reducing the number of casualties and assessing the capability of providing the evacuees' needs

Quantifying restoration costs in the aftermath of an extreme event using system dynamics and dynamic mathematical modeling approaches

Extreme events such as earthquakes, hurricanes, and the like, lead to devastating effects that may render multiple supply chain critical infrastructure elements inoperable. The economic losses caused by extreme events continue well after the emergency response phase has ended and are a key factor in determining the best path for post-disaster restoration. It is essential to develop efficient restoration and disaster management strategies to ameliorate the losses from such events. This dissertation extends the existing knowledge base on disaster management and restoration through the creation of models and tools that identify the relationship between production losses and restoration costs. The first research contribution is a system dynamics inoperability model that determines inputs, outputs, and flows for roadway networks. This model can be used to identify the connectivity of road segments and better understand how inoperability contributes to economic consequences. The second contribution is an algorithm that integrates critical infrastructure data derived from bottom-up cost estimation technique as part of an object-oriented software tool that can be used to determine the impact of system disruptions. The third contribution is a dynamic mathematical model that establishes a framework to estimate post-disaster restoration costs from a whole system perspective. Engineering managers, city planners, and policy makers can use the methodologies developed in this research to develop effective disaster planning schemas and to prioritize post-disaster restoration operations --Abstract, page iv

Multi-Objective Model to Improve Network Reliability Level under Limited Budget by Considering Selection of Facilities and Total Service Distance in Rescue Operations

Sudden disasters may damage facilities, transportation networks and other critical infrastructures, delay rescue and bring huge losses. Facility selection and reliable transportation network play an important role in emergency rescue. In this paper, the reliability level between two points in a network is defined from the point of view of minimal edge cut and path, respectively, and the equivalence of these two definitions is proven. Based on this, a multi-objective optimization model is proposed. The first goal of the model is to minimize the total service distance, and the second goal is to maximize the network reliability level. The original model is transformed into a model with three objectives, and the three objectives are combined into one objective by the method of weighting. The model is applied to a case, and the results are analyzed to verify the effectiveness of the model

Location-allocation models for relief distribution and victim evacuation after a sudden-onset natural disaster

Quick response to natural disasters is vital to reduce loss of and negative impact to human life. The response is more crucial in the presence of sudden-onset, difficult-to-predict natural disasters, especially in the early period of those events. On-site actions are part of such response, some of which are determination of temporary shelters and/ or temporary medical facility locations, the evacuation process of victims and relief distribution to victims. These activities of last-mile disaster logistics are important as they are directly associated with sufferers, the main focus of any alleviation of losses caused by any disaster. This research deals with the last-mile site positioning of relief supplies and medical facilities in response to a sudden-onset, difficult-to-predict disaster event, both dynamically and in a more coordinative way during a particular planning time horizon. Four mathematical models which reflect the situation in Padang Pariaman District after the West Sumatera earthquake were built and tested. The models are all concerned with making decisions in a rolling time horizon manner, but differ in coordinating the operations and in utilization of information about future resource availability. Model I is a basic model representing the current practice with relief distribution and victim evacuation performed separately and decisions made only considering the resources available at the time. Model II considers coordination between the two operations and conducts them with the same means of transport. Model III takes into account future information keeping the two operations separate. Model IV combines the features of Models II and III. The four models are approached both directly and by using various heuristics. The research shows that conducting relief distribution and victim evacuation activities by using shared vehicles and/or by taking into account future information on resource availability improves the current practice . This is clearly demonstrated by the experimental results on small problems. For large problems, experiments show that it is not practical to directly solve the models, especially the last three, and that the solution quality is poor when the solution process is limited to a reasonable time. Experiments also show that the heuristics help improve the solution quality and that the performances of the heuristics are different for different models. When each model is solved using its own best heuristic, the conclusions from results of large problems get very close to those from small problems. Finally, deviation of future information on resource availability is considered in the study, but is shown not to affect the performance of model III and model IV in carrying out relief distribution and victim evacuation. This indicates that it is always worthwhile to take into account the future information, even if the information is not perfect, as long as it is reasonably reliable