Emergency Vehicle Routing Problem for Post-Disaster Management

Abstract

Owing to the unpredictable nature of disasters, it is of great importance to determine the work that needs to be done in case of a disaster. The most vital component of such studies is the development and examination of post-disaster search and rescue activities and treatment facilities. One of the most important issues to be considered while performing these operations is reaching the disaster victims in the minimum time, and planning disaster logistics in the most efficient manner possible. In this chapter, the problem of planning debris scanning activities with unmanned aerial vehicles after an earthquake and transporting the injured people to hospital using ambulances in the minimum time is discussed and mathematical models are developed to solve the problem. The ambulance routing problem and the mathematical model to be used as a solution to the problem are discussed for the first time in the literature. The developed model was tested on the problem sets created by considering the data of the province under investigation. Analysis results showed that the developed model can reach optimal solutions in small and medium sized problems, and as the size of the problem increases, it does not reach the optimal solution in a short time, but it can produce appropriate solutions.