Abstract
In this paper, we address a two-echelon humanitarian logistics network design problem involving multiple central warehouses (CWs) and local distribution centers (LDCs) and develop a novel two-stage scenario-based possibilistic-stochastic programming (SBPSP) approach. The research is motivated by the urgent need for designing a relief network in Tehran in preparation for potential earthquakes to cope with the main logistical problems in pre- and post-disaster phases. During the first stage, the locations for CWs and LDCs are determined along with the prepositioned inventory levels for the relief supplies. In this stage, inherent uncertainties in both supply and demand data as well as the availability level of the transportation network's routes after an earthquake are taken into account. In the second stage, a relief distribution plan is developed based on various disaster scenarios aiming to minimize: total distribution time, the maximum weighted distribution time for the critical items, total cost of unused inventories and weighted shortage cost of unmet demands. A tailored differential evolution (DE) algorithm is developed to find good enough feasible solutions within a reasonable CPU time. Computational results using real data reveal promising performance of the proposed SBPSP model in comparison with the existing relief network in Tehran. The paper contributes to the literature on optimization based design of relief networks under mixed possibilistic-stochastic uncertainty and supports informed decision making by local authorities in increasing resilience of urban areas to natural disasters.
Highlights
The rate and impact of natural disasters have increased dramatically in the past decades due to population growth, global trend in urbanism, land use and stressing of ecosystems
Unpredictability and the uncertain nature of disasters are the key challenges of designing humanitarian relief chains (HRCs)
A novel scenariobased possibilistic-stochastic programming (SBPSP) model is proposed for humanitarian logistics network design problem, which is capable of coping with the uncertainty and multiple objectives of the decision problem, simultaneously
Summary
The rate and impact of natural disasters have increased dramatically in the past decades due to population growth, global trend in urbanism, land use and stressing of ecosystems. According to Natural Disaster Database, earthquakes alone have killed more than 700,000 people since 1990 (EM-DAT, 2015). Destructive effects of disasters, inevitable, could be mitigated by a proactive approach and the development of appropriate preparedness plans. Humanitarian relief chains (HRCs) aim at rapidly providing the emergency supplies for the affected people in order to minimize human suffering and death via efficient and effective allocation of the restricted resources. HRCs are typically configured to address the main humanitarian logistics issues in the preparedness phase of the so-called ‘disaster management life cycle’. These issues involve inventory prepositioning network design at pre-disaster phase and relief distribution planning problem at predisaster phase, which are addressed in this paper. Interested readers are referred to Balcik and Beamon (2008) for more details about these logistical issues in HRCs
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