Vehicle Routing Optimisation in Humanitarian Operations: A Survey on Modelling and Optimisation Approaches

Stefan Pickl,Lai Soon Lee,Wadi Khalid Anuar,Hsin-Vonn Seow

doi:10.3390/app11020667

Abstract

The growing field of humanitarian operations is driven by frequent events of disasters seen in the world today. Within this field, Operations Research (OR) plays a critical role in alleviating the suffering of victims that are impacted by disasters. This paper focuses on the branch of a well-known OR problem, known as the Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP), within the selected scope of humanitarian operations. A total of 123 papers of the last decade are reviewed and classified under the humanitarian operations of supply and delivery, evacuation as well as rescue operations. Besides specific disaster management phases and disaster types, various modelling challenges are highlighted, hinting towards a richer and more complex VRP seen under selected model characteristic classifications. Furthermore, established solution approaches, including hybrid solutions, are highlighted and classified, discussing how they are applied in the context of these humanitarian operations. The inclusion of a machine learning solution approach under the same classification is proposed. Finally, the trend and future outlook of VRP for the suggested humanitarian operations are discussed and highlighted.

Highlights

Following increased events of disasters in the past decades, the urgent need for effective Disaster Management (DM) has been the focus in various academic fields
Existing theoretical approaches for optimization methods in humanitarian operations rarely account for the real situation of the event, which often includes the disruption of critical facilities, such as the transportation network consisting of the roads and highways
This paper aims to extend the preliminary survey in [6] through improved classifications, research methodology, and analysis of the results to classify various published works in the last decade leading to the year 2020 in the attempt of highlighting the trends and focus of Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) in the scope of humanitarian operations in terms of modelling aspects and solution approaches applied

Summary

Introduction

Following increased events of disasters in the past decades, the urgent need for effective Disaster Management (DM) has been the focus in various academic fields. Being the centre of this topic, humanitarian operations are the key to alleviating suffering when disasters strike This includes Humanitarian Logistics (HL) as the key in handling postdisaster distribution operations, ensuring that the critical aids are efficiently and effectively delivered to the victims [1]. Chaotic situations could arise due to an uncertain volume of demands and critical conditions that victims may suffer from, such as being trapped in a damaged building or that the road may become congested due to unplanned panic evacuation. This gives rise to various theoretical approaches within the field of Operations Research (OR) in addressing the humanitarian operations in such challenging settings.

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