A multi-period ambulance location and allocation problem in the disaster

Abstract

To achieve quick response in the disaster, this paper addresses the issue of ambulance location and allocation, as well as the location problem of temporary medical centers. Considering budget and capacity limitations, a multi-period mixed integer programming model is proposed and two hybrid heuristic algorithms are designed to solve this complex problem. The proposed model and algorithm are further verified in a real case study, and the numerical experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed model. Specifically, we obtain several findings based on the computational results: (1) The best locations of ambulance stations should change in each period because the demand rate changes over time. (2) Involving temporary medical centers is necessary to reduce the average waiting time of injured people. (3) It may not be optimal to allocate ambulances from the nearest ambulance stations because of potentially limited station capacity.