Total Damage Costs Research Articles

Life cycle assessment of maize cultivation and biomass utilization in northern Thailand

Maize, a major food source for the world, is a high-yield commodity crop, and one of five major crops in Thailand. Occupying about 33% of the Thai upland farmlands, maize farming has been growing tremendously especially in northern Thailand. However, after harvesting, open burning is widely used in order to get rid of maize cobs and husks in land preparation for the next period. The current maize farming practices have caused several problems to local communities as well as urban dwellers. The objectives of this research were: (i) to analyze the life cycle inventory of maize cultivation, maize cob pellet production and heavy fuel oil production in northern Thailand using IDEA v2.0 and ecoinvent v3.0 databases; (ii) to evaluate environmental impacts of maize cultivation, maize cob pellet production and heavy fuel oil production using A Global Scale Environmental Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LIME-3) with the results of weighting (Country-specific) based on monetary valuation of end-points. This study evaluated the life cycle environmental impacts of maize cultivation and continuing through biomass energy production from maize cob by comparing with heat production from heavy fuel oil in Mae Chaem and Chiang Dao districts in the north of Thailand by using two different databases, IDEA v2.0 and ecoinvent v3.0 with an endpoint-based life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) method (LIME-3). The system boundary of this study includes land preparation, planting, weeding, farming, harvesting, maize cob pellet production and heat production from maize cob pellet and heavy fuel oil. The units of analysis in this study are 1 kg of maize grain, 3.76E-03 MJ of biomass energy production from maize cob and 3.76E-03 MJ of heat production from heavy fuel oil, respectively. The data were obtained from field survey supplemented with the Thai National Life Cycle Inventory Database and other scientific publications. The results included the environmental impacts of maize cultivation and continuing through biomass energy production from maize cob by comparing with heat production from heavy fuel oil in Mae Chaem and Chiang Dao districts by using two different databases with LCIA method on the endpoint approaches (LIME-3). The total damage cost based on IDEA v2.0 life cycle inventory (LCI) database in Mae Chaem and Chiang Dao districts was about 4.64E-01 USD and 4.89E-01 USD, respectively. As regards ecoinvent v3.0 database, the total damage cost in Mae Chaem and Chiang Dao districts was about 5.37E-01USD and 5.99E-01 USD, respectively. It can be seen that the total damage cost using different inventory databases in Chiang Dao are slightly higher than Mae Chaem due to different input materials. The result of total cost using inventory data from ecoinvent v3.0 is slightly higher than IDEA v2.0 due to different inventory processes in each database. However, the results in this study demonstrated that the databases show similar trends in the assessment results. On the other hand, certain numerical differences between the databases at some points were found to be more substantial. The results of present study are particularly relevant to policy choices for improving or using the good practices for maize cultivation, which would reduce the environmental performance of maize production systems in the area. To address the air pollution issue from biomass open burning of agricultural residues in the study area, the government agencies in Thailand should be responsible for promoting better biomass management for the future.

Analysis of the chemical safety state in the Luhansk region in the conditions of the warning conflict

The statistics of emergency situations in Ukraine for 2018 are analyzed. The total cost of damage caused by emergencies amounted to more than UAH 516 million. About 15% of the territory of Ukraine with a population of more than 10 million people is in a critical ecological state, in fact not favorable for living. It is shown that the most environmentally hazardous production (coke and metallurgical plants, power plants and chemical industry enterprises) are concentrated in the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. The production complex consists of 3995 enterprises, 7 of which are environmentally hazardous objects. Damage to technological installations can result in dangerous consequences for the population and the environment near the enterprises. Due to emergency emissions and discharges there is pollution of atmospheric air, surface and underground waters and soils. Storage tanks and sludges, storage sites for industrial waste, such as slag dumps, waste heaps, stocks of raw materials, etc. located on the territories of tailings storage facilities also cause environmental hazards. There is also the risk of contamination of the area outside the conflict zone and the Sea of Azov in the event of pollution of the Siversky Donets, Kalmius, Mius and Mokryy Yelanchyk rivers, which occur near the clash line and in areas beyond the control of the Government of Ukraine.
 As a result of the analysis of the state of chemical safety in Ukraine, the example of PrJSC «Severodonetsk Azot Association» shows the need to increase safety requirements and prepare new qualified personnel for radiation, chemical and biological protection. 
 The necessity of attracting additional funds for ensuring the effectiveness of the actions of the territorial subsystems of the EGS GZ in the region in the conditions of emergencies, enhancing the readiness of the specialized fire fighting service of the city's civil protection to the actions for appointment, ensuring the timeliness and quality of carrying out work to save people, extinguishing fires, eliminating the consequences of emergencies , creation of the possibility of conducting search, rescue, restoration and friend services around the clock their urgent work.

Thermodynamic, thermoeconomic and environmental performance analyses of a high bypass turbofan engine used on commercial aircrafts

Exergetic, exergoeconomic and exergoenvironmental analyses of a high bypass turbofan engine used on commercial aircraft are performed to determine the magnitudes of the irreversibilities within a the system, exergy cost formation rates of product and waste exergy, and the environmental damage cost rate of engine emissions. According to this study, the GE90-115 turbofan engine produces 324.59 GJ/h- kinetic exergy rate while it consumes 4.104 kg/s Jet-A fuel. The energy and exergy efficiency values of the engine are estimated to be 51.00% and 48.05%. The fuel cost rate is calculated to be 9632.91 US$/h when the specific fuel exergy cost is found to be 14.24 US$/GJ. The specific product exergy cost is obtained to be 32.23 US$/GJ. Hovewer, the total environmental damage cost rate of engine emissions (UHC, CO and NOx) is accounted to be 4552.83 US$/h as long as the specific environmental damage cost is determined to be 14.02 US$/GJ. As a result, the specific exergoenvironmental cost is calculated to be 46.25 US$/GJ for Jet-A fuel.

Economic analysis of externalities caused by an open dump site: A case study of Meethotamulla dump site Sri Lanka

Open dumps not only cause environmental degradation but also cause losses to the country’s economy. Due to ignorance by many, it has become the most common method of disposal of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) in the country. Meethotamulla dump site is one such open dump site located in Kolonnawa Municipality in Western Province of Sri Lanka. Until its collapse in April 2017, 850 metric tons of MSW was dumped daily and around 1000 households were directly affected around the dumpsite. The externalities of open dumping are not directly observed in the market, thus often underestimated. Hence, the main objective of the study was to estimate the total cost of major externalities caused by an open dumpsite. A household survey was conducted using a pre-tested questionnaire among the surrounding community of the dump site. Stratified random sampling was adopted and households were selected from distances of 100m, 200m, 300m, 500m and 700m along three directions. A total of 117 households were surveyed from May to August 2016. Various externalities were assessed by using different valuation techniques and cumulative value of all estimates was taken as the lower bound value of total annual damage cost of Meethotamulla dumpsite. The total cost of health damages perceived by surrounding community was estimated as Rs.91.50 million by using Cost of illness method, Human capital approach and Contingent valuation method whereas the value for loss of life was estimated as Rs.102.9 million based on value of statistical life. Annual preventive expenditure used to mitigate externalities such as odor, dust, disturbance due to insects, mosquitoes and flies, floods were estimated as Rs.2.77 million. The estimated cost for foregone benefit of clean groundwater based on the opportunity cost method was estimated as Rs.0.22 million per annum while loss of productive time on additional cleaning was estimated as Rs.7.37 million. Use of hedonic price method revealed that the annual loss of esthetic value due to the dumpsite was Rs.37.56 million. The study further revealed that dumpsite emits 24,632 tons of methane per year causing not only global warming but also an opportunity cost of carbon credits worth of Rs.928.18 million. The annual cost of all the externalities was estimated as Rs. 1,115.74 million with a per ton cost of Rs.3,596. Most of the time policy decisions on waste management are based on monetary values of costs and benefits which are directly observable in the market. However most of the costs are hidden thus they are underestimated, causing huge private and social costs to the country’s economy. In order to make correct policy decisions related to municipal solid waste management, a proper identification, understanding and estimation of such externalities related to disposal of solid waste is a must. Keywords: Open dump site, Externalities, Damage estimation

LANDSLIDES AND PRECIPITATION CHARACTERISTICS DURING THE TYPHOON LIONROCK IN IWATE PREFECTURE, JAPAN

In August 2016, the typhoon Lionrock made landfall on Japan's northeastern coast and causedfloods and landslides. Lionrock b rought heavy precipitation to Japan, which Shimotokusari station (33201)recorded 24-hour rainfall amount over 200 mm and the peak rainfall intensity was approximately 65 mm/hr.The total cost of damage within the Iwate pre fecture is over 700 million dolla rs, moreover, 20 lives were lostand 4 people missing. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to present the results of the post-disasterinvestigation, including, the back-analysis of landslides and precipitation due to the typhoon Lionrock. Therainfall and landslides relat ionship is significantly important for rainfall intensity -duration threshold. For thistyphoon, the empirical rain fall intensity-duration threshold has been derived as I = 20.24D-0.33. The slopefailure could be broadly categorized into the debris flo w, surfic ial erosion, and soil slide, mo reover, occurredon slopes ranging from 19 to 58 degrees.

Probability distribution of the seismic damage cost over the life cycle of structures

In the life-cycle analysis, the total cost of damage caused by earthquakes is a significant but highly uncertain component. In the current literature, the seismic risk analysis is largely limited to the evaluation of the average cost of damage, which is not informative about the full extent of variability in the cost. The paper presents a systematic development of the stochastic modeling of seismic risk analysis problem and reformulates the damage cost analysis as a superposition of compound Poisson processes. An explicit analytical solution for the distribution of damage cost is derived in form of a recursive equation. The proposed approach extends the capability of the existing framework of seismic risk analysis, which can be used to optimize initial design and retrofitting of structures.

Estimating Human Health Impacts and Costs Due to Iranian Fossil Fuel Power Plant Emissions through the Impact Pathway Approach

Air pollutants from fossil fuel fired power plants harm the environment and human health. More than 91% of Iran’s electricity production is from thermal power plants that use natural gas, diesel, and fuel oil. We apply the impact pathway approach to estimate the health impacts arising from Iranian fossil-based electricity generation emission, and in a next step, we calculate monetary costs of the estimated damages, for a one-year period starting from 20 March 2016 through 2017. We use the new version of SIMPACTS (International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna, Austria) to investigate the health effects from 61 major Iran fossil-based power plants separately. The selected plants represent 95.6% of total Iran fossil-based power generation. Using the individual and different power plant estimates, we avoid extrapolation and our results can be considered more reliable, taking into account spatial differences. The total damage cost is 723.42 million USD (2000). The damage cost per generated electricity varies from 0.06 to 22.41 USD/MWh and average plant damage cost is 2.85 USD/MWh. Accounting for these external costs indicates the actual costs of fossil energy. The results are useful for policy makers to compare the health costs from these plants and to decide on cleaner energy sources and to take measures to increase benefits for society.

Does Flood Disaster Lessen GDP Growth? Evidence from Malaysia’s Manufacturing and Agricultural Sectors

Flood disaster has incurred remarkable costs to human, social and economic aspects, affecting not only the local but national and world economy as well. Flood is the most significant natural hazard in Malaysia, particularly in terms of its frequency and duration, size of the affected areas and economic damages. This paper examines the impacts of flood disaster on gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the agricultural and manufacturing sectors in Malaysia for the period of 1960 to 2013 by applying the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach for cointegration and error correction model (ECM) for short-term relationship. Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) test, Phillips-Perron (PP) test and Kwiatkowski-Phillips-Schmidt-Shin (KPSS) unit root test examines the stationarity of the series. Results show that the series are cointegrated. The findings suggest that size of affected areas affects agricultural growth in both the long run and short run. Meanwhile, total damage cost also appears to affect manufacturing growth in both the long run and short run. The results of the study have important implications on the country’s agricultural and manufacturing sectors.

Stochastic renewal process models for estimation of damage cost over the life-cycle of a structure

In the life-cycle cost analysis of a structure, the total cost of damage caused by external hazards like earthquakes, wind storms and flood is an important but highly uncertain component. In the literature, the expected damage cost is typically analyzed under the assumption of either the homogeneous Poisson process or the renewal process in an infinite time horizon (i.e., asymptotic solution). The paper reformulates the damage cost estimation problem as a compound renewal process and derives general solutions for the mean and variance of total cost, with and without discounting, over the life cycle of the structure. The paper highlights a fundamental property of the renewal process, referred to as renewal decomposition, which is a key to solving a wide range of life cycle analysis problems. The proposed formulation generalizes the results given in the literature, and it can be used to optimize the design and life cycle performance of structures.

A two-stage decomposition method on fresh product distribution problem

Refrigerator cars are widely used for fresh product distribution. The energy consumption of these vehicles is sensitive to the environment temperature, and changes continuously due to fluctuations of the environment temperature. As a result, the total refrigeration cost is influenced by the car’s departure time. To reduce operation costs of third-party transportation providers, the refrigerator car scheduling problem is addressed in this research. A time-dependent mixed-integer programming model is established to reduce total operation costs, including routing, time penalty, cargo damage and refrigeration costs. An adaptive heuristic method is proposed by combining the variable neighbourhood search and particle swarm optimisation. To improve the algorithm quality, a two-stage decomposition method is developed. The problem is divided into two echelon sub-problems. One is the shortest path problem, and the other is the departure time scheduling problem. A feedback strategy is utilised to avoid local optimal solutions and design of experiments methodology is adopted to derive the optimal parameter setting of the algorithm. Numerical experiments are conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed time-dependent decision model.

Greenhouse gas emissions and reactive nitrogen releases during the life-cycles of staple food production in China and their mitigation potential

Life-cycle analysis of staple food (rice, flour and corn-based fodder) production and assessments of the associated greenhouse gas (GHG) and reactive nitrogen (Nr) releases, from environmental and economic perspectives, help to develop effective mitigation options. However, such evaluations have rarely been executed in China. We evaluated the GHG and Nr releases per kilogram of staple food production (carbon and Nr footprints) and per unit of net economic benefit (CO2-NEB and Nr-NEB), and explored their mitigation potential. Carbon footprints of food production in China were obviously higher than those in some developed countries. There was a high spatial variation in the footprints, primarily attributable to differences in synthetic N use (or CH4 emissions) per unit of food production. Provincial carbon footprints had a significant linear relationship with Nr footprints, attributed to large contribution of N fertilizer use to both GHG and Nr releases. Synthetic N fertilizer applications and CH4 emissions dominated the carbon footprints, while NH3 volatilization and N leaching were the main contributors to the Nr footprints. About 564 (95% uncertainty range: 404–701) TgCO2eqGHG and 10 (7.4–12.4) Tg Nr-N were released every year during 2001–2010 from staple food production. This caused the total damage costs of 325 (70–555) billion ¥, equivalent to nearly 1.44% of the Gross Domestic Product of China. Moreover, the combined damage costs and economic input costs, accounted for 66%-80% of the gross economic benefit generated from food production. A reduction of 92.7TgCO2eqyr−1 and 2.2TgNr-Nyr−1 could be achieved by reducing synthetic N inputs by 20%, increasing grain yields by 5% and implementing off-season application of straw and mid-season drainage practices for rice cultivation. In order to realize these scenarios, an ecological compensation scheme should be established to incentivize farmers to gradually adopt knowledge-based managements.

The economic benefit of time‐varying surveillance effort for invasive species management

SummaryGovernment agencies develop invasive species management programmes assuming early detection is key to successful management. Some theoretical studies confirm this intuition, while others, which restrict sampling effort to be constant in time, suggest managers are investing too heavily in sampling to detect new local invader populations.We explore whether these optimal constant‐effort strategies underplay the importance of early surveillance and determine how much changing sampling effort through time reduces total management costs.Using optimal control theory to calculate time‐dependent surveillance policies that minimize the total cost of sampling, eradication, and damage by the invasive, we find that the best strategies often use intense early sampling, followed by reduced sampling effort.Intense early sampling can drastically reduce costs compared with constant‐effort strategies if propagule pressure from outside the managed area is low. However, if new infestations arise from frequent independent introductions from an outside source, constant strategies are cost‐effective.Synthesis and applications. For invasive species that are initially present, not frequently reintroduced into the managed area, and for which surveillance is reasonably cost‐effective, we recommend a simple three‐phase management programme that deploys intense early surveillance until the majority of undetected populations have been discovered, followed by medium effort until most of the heavily infested areas have been cleared of the invader and finally low long‐term effort to prevent infestations caused by future introductions and spread from populations that escaped surveillance. This programme captures the majority of the economic benefits from varying sampling effort continuously through time.

An Evidence-Based Review on Medicinal Plants Used as Insecticide and Insect Repellent in Traditional Iranian Medicine.

ContextInsects can be the cause of major ecological problems; they can transmit microbes and parasites that affect humans, and damage food crops, trees, and homes. The total economic cost of insect-related damage and disease is immeasurable. In traditional Iranian medicine (TIM), several medicinal plants have been identified as insecticides or insect repellents, but many of them are still unknown. Therefore, the aim of this study was to review the insecticidal or insect repellent activity of certain medicinal plants described in TIM.Evidence AcquisitionInformation about medicinal plants proposed as insecticides and insect repellents in the TIM was collected from the TIM literature, and searched in modern medical databases to find studies that confirmed their efficacy.ResultsModern investigations have supported the claims of the insecticidal activity of several plants, including Allium sativum, Artemisia absinthium, Citrullus colocynthis, Laurus nobilis, Mentha pulegium, Myrtus communis, Nerium oleander, Ocimum basilicum, and Origanum majorana. However, in the cases of plants like Iris florentina and Malva sylvestris, there is not enough evidence in modern medicine to prove their effectiveness with regard to their insecticidal and insect repellent activities.ConclusionsThis study confirmed the Iranian traditional medicine claims of the insecticidal and insect repellent activity of certain plants. Further pharmacological and clinical studies are recommended to evaluate the overall efficacy and possible mechanisms underlying these herbs.

Policy Monitor—Bonding Requirements for U.S. Natural Gas Producers

Natural gas producers are constantly making tradeoffs between money, time, and environmental risk. The private costs and benefits of drilling are realized immediately, but the external costs are not. This means that by the time external costs are well understood, producers may no longer exist or may not have sufficient resources to finance necessary cleanups or to compensate those who have been adversely affected. Because producers do not face the total cost of potential external damages, they may take too many risks. This article discusses alternative regulatory approaches for mitigating moral hazard in U.S. natural gas production. Particular emphasis is given to bonding requirements, which have tended to receive less attention from policy makers than other approaches but have a long history. Although the use of bonding has important limitations, this approach is quite well suited to addressing many of the environmental risks in this market. (JEL: K32, L71, Q48, Q58)

Damage cost of the Dan River coal ash spill

The recent coal ash spill on the Dan River in North Carolina, USA has caused several negative effects on the environment and the public. In this analysis, I report a monetized value for these effects after the first 6 months following the spill. The combined cost of ecological damage, recreational impacts, effects on human health and consumptive use, and esthetic value losses totals $295,485,000. Because the environmental impact and associated economic costs of riverine coal ash spills can be long-term, on the order of years or even decades, this 6-month assessment should be viewed as a short-term preview. The total cumulative damage cost from the Dan River coal ash spill could go much higher.

After Sandy: Rethinking Flood Risk Management in Asian Coastal Megacities

The tropical storm, and for a time hurricane, named Sandy arrived on the U.S. east coast on October 30, 2012, and delivered a 5.1-m storm surge, the highest since 1851, to the heart of the country’s financial hub in the Lower Manhattan area of New York City (NYC) (Fig. 1) [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) 2012]. As a result, there were more than 40 fatalities across the city, and the storm-related death toll across the northeast United States reached 63. Sixty-nine deaths in the Caribbean region meant that the total number of casualties caused by the storm was 132 [British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) 2012; Fischetti 2012]. Public transport systems were submerged, the runways of two major airports (John F. Kennedy and Newark) were flooded and closed, and the New York Stock Exchange was shut down for 2 days. The forecasting firm Equcat estimated the likely total cost of damages to be more than $85 billion (Reuters 2012b). Reuters estimated damage of at least $18 billion in the area between downtown and Long Island alone (Reuters 2012a). To put this in context, the average annual losses from cyclones, storm surges, coastal floods, and winds in the United States are estimated to be in the region of just $10 billion per year. Although the magnitude of Sandy was less intense than Katrina in 2005, Sandy affected a larger area; the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA 2012) reported strong winds (greater than 65 km=h) for a distance of approximately 500 km during Hurricane Katrina, whereas Sandy prevailed for over 1,500 km at a similar intensity. This is possibly the main reason why Sandy generated sea surges over a larger coastal area than did Katrina, and affected more than 12 states on the east coast [China Central Television (CCTV) 2012]. Previous research (Webster et al. 2005) has indicated that the frequency and intensity of cyclones (i.e., hurricanes and typhoons) has increased in the past 50 years, and that the trend is expected to rise continuously this century because of climate change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC 2012) also reported that it is likely that there has been a poleward shift in the main Northern Hemisphere extratropical storm tracks, which means that the potential for intense storms that produce significant wind and extreme rainfall is slightly increased. The impact of Storm Sandy reflects the vulnerability of coastal megacities across the globe. This vulnerability exists because human settlement, including properties and infrastructure, is located mostly in low-lying flood-prone areas similar to those of New York City. The major financial hub of Wall Street, for example, is just a mile away from the harbor. An accepted definition of a megacity is a city with a population of 8 million or more (United Nations 2010). NYC has 8.2 million inhabitants, approximately 2 million of whom live on Long Island or smaller islands and in flood-prone areas. The city government realized that it would be impossible to relocate this number of people and associated assets outside of the hazard areas, and has therefore started to adapt flood-management strategies in preparation for climate change (NYC Government 2012). Adaptation practices such as assessment of surge risk, flood-risk mapping, prediction of risks from various climate scenarios, and enhanced emergency evacuation plans have been implemented since 2010 (Klima et al. 2011). The city’s storm warning system was activated some 41 h before Storm Sandy arrived, at which point city authorities announced the closure of the financial markets and advised residents to stock up on food and water. Recommendations to employ sandbags for flood

Mathematical models for estimating earthquake casualties and damage cost through regression analysis using matrices

The aim of this study was to develop mathematical models for estimating earthquake casualties such as death, number of injured persons, affected families and total cost of damage. To quantify the direct damages from earthquakes to human beings and properties given the magnitude, intensity, depth of focus, location of epicentre and time duration, the regression models were made. The researchers formulated models through regression analysis using matrices and used α = 0.01.The study considered thirty destructive earthquakes that hit the Philippines from the inclusive years 1968 to 2012. Relevant data about these said earthquakes were obtained from Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology. Data on damages and casualties were gathered from the records of National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.The mathematical models made are as follows:This study will be of great value in emergency planning, initiating and updating programs for earthquake hazard reductionin the Philippines, which is an earthquake-prone country.

Damage costs due to bedload transport processes in Switzerland

Abstract. In Alpine regions, floods are often associated with erosion, transport and deposition of coarse sediment along the streams. These processes are related to bedload transport and pose a hazard in addition to the elevated water discharge. However, it is unclear to what extent they contribute to total damage caused by natural hazards. Using the Swiss flood and landslide damage database – which collects financial damage data of naturally triggered floods, debris flows and landslides – we estimated the contribution of fluvial bedload transport processes to total damage costs in Switzerland. For each database entry an upper and lower limit of financial losses caused by or related to bedload transport processes was estimated, and the quality of the estimate was judged. When compared to total damage, the fraction of bedload transport damage in the 40 yr study period lies between 0.32 and 0.37. However, this value is highly variable for individual years (from 0.02 to 0.72). Bedload transport processes have induced cumulative financial losses between CHF 4.3 and 5.1 billion. Spatial analysis revealed a considerable heterogeneous distribution with largest damage for mountainous regions. The analysis of the seasonal distribution shows that more than 75% of the bedload damage costs occurs in summer (June–August), and ~ 23% in autumn (September– November). With roughly 56%, by far most of the damage has been registered in August. Bedload transport processes are presently still inadequately understood, and the predictive quality of common bedload equations is often poor. Our analysis demonstrates the importance of bedload transport as a natural hazard and financial source of risk, and thus the need for future structured research on transport processes in steep streams.

Maintenance Versus Individual and Overarching Protections for Parallel Systems

HeA parallel system consisting of components with different characteristics is studied. The components can be unavailable due to internal failures or external impacts. Each component has an increasing failure rate and is subjected to external impacts that can occur with fixed frequency. In order to increase the system availability, three measures can be taken: 1. Increase of the components replacement frequency; 2. Overarching protection of the system; 3. Individual component protection. The external impact must penetrate both the overarching protection and the individual component protection in order to destroy a component. The optimal resource allocation strategy which minimizes the total cost of maintenance, protection and damage caused by unsupplied demand is studied. The proposed approach is based on a universal generating function technique and a genetic algorithm.

The decision-making models for relief asset management and interaction with disaster mitigation

The World Health Organization defines a disaster as any occurrence that causes damage, destruction, ecological disruption, loss of human life, human suffering, deterioration of health and health services on a scale sufficient to warrant an extraordinary response from outside the affected community or area (Haghani and Oh, 1996 [1]). Natural disasters can be devastating in terms of human injuries and economic damages. For example, the two earthquakes that occurred in the Marmara region of Turkey in 1999 caused over 20,000 casualties and resulted in the collapse of more than 110,000 buildings (Karaman et al., 2008 [2]). The total cost of damage from these two earthquakes is estimated to range between 9 and 13 billion dollars (Bibbee et al., 2000 [3]). And in the recent Van, Erciş earthquakes, 644 people died and 35,000 houses collapsed (Van, Turkey Earthquake, 2011 [4]).It is obvious that earthquake disaster is a serious and intractable problem that threatens the ability of a nation to protect human lives and property losses. The extent of the casualties and economic damage calls for finding efficient solutions to important problems with the aim of enhancing the capability of reducing the impacts of such events and providing a quick and efficient response by rapidly supplying relief items such as emergency food, water, and medicine to those areas that are severely affected (Beamon and Balcik, 2008 [5]). The main motivation for this study is to reduce the number of casualties and to protect national properties (e.g. national infrastructure etc.) by showing disaster related problems' studies. Developing mathematical models for disaster-related problems and solving them by using operations research techniques have received increasing interest due to their efficiency in tackling these problems.