A two-stage vehicle routing model for large-scale bioterrorism emergencies

In this article, we are interested in routing vehicles to service a large-scale bioterrorism emergency. We describe the specifics of routing vehicles in such a large-scale emergency and decompose the problem into two stages: a planning stage and an operational stage. In the planning stage, we generate the routes well in advance of any emergency. In the operational stage, we take into account the planned routes and the information revealed at the time of the emergency, to decide the delivery quantity and any adjustments to the routes. We propose mathematical formulations and solution approaches for both stages. Lastly, we demonstrate the effectiveness of our formulations and solution procedures in developing robust routes through numerical experiments. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. NETWORKS, 2009