Vehicle routing and resource distribution in postdisaster humanitarian relief operations

After a disaster, supplies must be efficiently and equitably distributed to those in need, wounded persons must be evacuated to triage centers, and relief workers must be transported to affected areas. This complex humanitarian relief problem requires the coordination of numerous vehicles of varying capacities to transport goods, disaster victims, and volunteer workers through a network of roads, some of which may be impassable. To address this problem, a detailed mathematical programming model is presented. Owing to the complexity of this formulation, only small-scale problem instances may be solved optimally via commercial solver software. Therefore, a new heuristic approach is proposed to solve problems of practical size within acceptable time restrictions. The performance of the heuristic is evaluated for numerous representative test instances.

[1]  Mingzhou Jin,et al.  A two-stage algorithm with valid inequalities for the split delivery vehicle routing problem , 2007 .

[2]  Moshe Dror,et al.  Savings by Split Delivery Routing , 1989, Transp. Sci..

[3]  Wei Yi,et al.  Ant Colony Optimization for Disaster Relief Operations , 2007 .

[4]  Ajay S. Vinze,et al.  Resource allocation for demand surge mitigation during disaster response , 2010, Decis. Support Syst..

[5]  Peter A. Rogerson,et al.  A logistics model for emergency supply of critical items in the aftermath of a disaster , 2011 .

[6]  K. Flegal,et al.  Anthropometric reference data for children and adults: United States, 2003–2006. , 2008, National health statistics reports.

[7]  Yi-Chang Chiu,et al.  Real-time mobilization decisions for multi-priority emergency response resources and evacuation groups: Model formulation and solution , 2007 .

[8]  Mark A. Turnquist,et al.  Pre-positioning of emergency supplies for disaster response , 2010 .

[9]  Linet Özdamar,et al.  Greedy Neighborhood Search for Disaster Relief and Evacuation Logistics , 2008, IEEE Intelligent Systems.

[10]  Xinping Yan,et al.  Development of an Inexact Fuzzy Robust Programming Model for Integrated Evacuation Management under Uncertainty , 2009 .

[11]  Lawrence Bodin,et al.  Networks and vehicle routing for municipal waste collection , 1974, Networks.

[12]  Mei-Shiang Chang,et al.  A scenario planning approach for the flood emergency logistics preparation problem under uncertainty , 2007 .

[13]  Jiuh-Biing Sheu,et al.  An emergency logistics distribution approach for quick response to urgent relief demand in disasters , 2007 .

[14]  Rajan Batta,et al.  Review of recent developments in OR/MS research in disaster operations management , 2013, Eur. J. Oper. Res..

[15]  Mourad Debbabi,et al.  A decentralized heuristic for multi-depot split-delivery vehicle routing problem , 2011, 2011 IEEE International Conference on Automation and Logistics (ICAL).

[16]  Debarati Guha-Sapir,et al.  Annual Disaster Statistical Review 2009The numbers and trends , 2010 .

[17]  J. Caulkins,et al.  Dynamic drug policy: an introduction and overview , 2004 .

[18]  Michael J. Widener,et al.  A hierarchical approach to modeling hurricane disaster relief goods distribution , 2011 .

[19]  Gwo-Hshiung Tzeng,et al.  Multi-objective optimal planning for designing relief delivery systems , 2007 .

[20]  Irina S. Dolinskaya,et al.  Decentralized Approaches to Logistics Coordi- nation in Humanitarian Relief , 2011 .

[21]  Wout Dullaert,et al.  A multi-objective robust optimization model for logistics planning in the earthquake response phase , 2013 .

[22]  Fritz Gehbauer,et al.  Optimized resource allocation for emergency response after earthquake disasters , 2000 .

[23]  Giovanni Righini,et al.  A branch-and-cut-and-price algorithm for the multi-depot heterogeneous vehicle routing problem with time windows , 2011 .

[24]  Javier Montero,et al.  A multi-criteria optimization model for humanitarian aid distribution , 2011, J. Glob. Optim..

[25]  Rajan Batta,et al.  Allocation and reallocation of ambulances to casualty clusters in a disaster relief operation , 2007 .

[26]  Linet Özdamar,et al.  A hierarchical clustering and routing procedure for large scale disaster relief logistics planning , 2012 .

[27]  Philip C. Jones,et al.  Prepositioning supplies in preparation for disasters , 2011, Eur. J. Oper. Res..

[28]  Irina S. Dolinskaya,et al.  Disaster relief routing: Integrating research and practice , 2012 .

[29]  Linet Özdamar,et al.  Emergency Logistics Planning in Natural Disasters , 2004, Ann. Oper. Res..

[30]  Terry R. Rakes,et al.  A self-balancing CUSUM approach for the efficient allocation of resources during post-disaster debris disposal operations , 2011 .

[31]  A. Chakravarty.  Humanitarian relief chain: Rapid response under uncertainty , 2014 .

[32]  Jiuh-Biing Sheu,et al.  Dynamic Relief-Demand Management for Emergency Logistics Operations Under Large-Scale Disasters , 2010 .

[33]  Rajan Batta,et al.  Dispatching and routing of emergency vehicles in disaster mitigation using data fusion , 2009 .

[34]  Linet Özdamar,et al.  A dynamic logistics coordination model for evacuation and support in disaster response activities , 2007, Eur. J. Oper. Res..

[35]  Nezih Altay,et al.  OR/MS research in disaster operations management , 2006, Eur. J. Oper. Res..

[36]  Maria Paola Scaparra,et al.  A hierarchical compromise model for the joint optimization of recovery operations and distribution of emergency goods in Humanitarian Logistics , 2014, Comput. Oper. Res..

[37]  Gilbert Laporte,et al.  A branch-and-cut algorithm for the multi-product multi-vehicle inventory-routing problem , 2013 .

[38]  Shangyao Yan,et al.  Optimal scheduling of emergency roadway repair and subsequent relief distribution , 2009, Comput. Oper. Res..

[39]  Benita M. Beamon,et al.  Last Mile Distribution in Humanitarian Relief , 2008, J. Intell. Transp. Syst..

[40]  Ann Melissa Campbell,et al.  Routing for Relief Efforts , 2008, Transp. Sci..

[41]  Kai Huang,et al.  Logistics for Large-Scale Disaster Response: Achievements and Challenges , 2012, 2012 45th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.

[42]  Ming Liu,et al.  A composite weighted multi-objective optimal approach for emergency logistics distribution , 2007, 2007 IEEE International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management.

[43]  Gülay Barbarosoglu,et al.  A two-stage stochastic programming framework for transportation planning in disaster response , 2004, J. Oper. Res. Soc..