Robust Network Design with Supply and Demand Uncertainties in Humanitarian Logistics

Abstract

Humanitarian logistics has gained attention as an important tool in disaster management. The authors propose a network design for relief distribution under several uncertain parameters based on robust optimization. The model has the solution robustness and model robustness properties. Furthermore, the authors present a methodology to reduce the number of variables when an equality constraint and objective function contain the same variables. The article's model attempts to minimize total cost of the system as well as the variance of total cost. The authors examine a case study on the earthquake scenarios in Bangladesh to show the applicability of the model. The findings show that the model is robust in relief distribution planning. The authors analyze sensitivity of several parameters and compare several models to show the superiority of the stochastic model.