A decision support system for robust humanitarian facility location

TLDR: The problem statement of the research work consists in proposing a decision-making support model in artificial intelligence dedicated to the humanitarian world and capable of designing a coherent network that is still able to adequately manage the response to a disaster despite failures or inadequacies of infrastructure and potential resources.

About: This article is published in Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence.The article was published on 2015-11-01 and is currently open access. It has received 46 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Humanitarian Logistics & Resilience (network).

Figures

Fig. 3.2. Map of the studied zone with mountains and tectonic plates.

Table 3.3 Case example – number of persons to be served.

Table 3.2 Case example – scenarios (L¼ low, M¼Medium, H¼High).

Table 3.11 Multi-scenarios SMSP numerical application – non-satisfaction

Table 3.5 Case example – transport cost t(i,j) between two regions (i,j).

Table 3.9 Extended SMSP Numerical Application – Summary of results

Frequently asked questions

Q1. What have the authors contributed in "A decision support system for robust humanitarian facility location" ?

This is mainly due to the fact that when a disaster occurs, some hazards can strongly impact the network by destroying some resources or collapsing infrastructure. The problem statement of their research work consists in proposing a decision-making support model in artificial intelligence dedicated to the humanitarian world and capable of designing a coherent network that is still able to adequately manage the response to a disaster despite failures or inadequacies of infrastructure and potential resources. 

Q2. What are the future works in "A decision support system for robust humanitarian facility location" ?

Further work needs to be conducted such as to extend their approaches to these particular crises in order to also improve their resilience and efficiency. In an environment where information is more and more massive ( including in the situation of crises ), it will be an issue to define and develop a decision-support-system for supporting, at the operational level, the responsiveness and coordination of humanitarian response in spite of a particularly disrupted environment on the one hand, and highly heterogeneous and distributed actors on the other hand. 

Q3. How can disasters affect the logistics environment?

Disasters can modify the logistics environment in two ways by– restricting existing transport capacity between regions; – reducing the responsiveness of a warehouse where emergencykits were stored. 

Q4. What is the main argument for the use of decision-support systems in humanitarian operations?

Although the environment changes rapidly and unpredictably after a disaster, Kovács and Spens (2007) argue that humanitarians could benefit from the use of decision-support-systemsconcerning the optimization of their logistics networks. 

Q5. How many warehouses can be used to store relief items?

All the warehouses must allow delivering relief items to not more than 14,000 persons since the authorities do not have the financial means to store more. 

Q6. What are the conventions used to facilitate the reading of data and variables?

To facilitate the reading of data and variables, the authors will adopt hereafter the following conventions:– a datum has a name written in small letters: cg¼overall capacity set by the planner; – a decision variable has a name in capital letters: C¼capacity to be determined; – indices are written in brackets: C(j), X(i,j). 

Q7. What is the percentage of the usable road network after a disaster?

In step 1, the percentage of the usable road network after a medium-level disaster is 90% for regions 1–4 and 9–12, and 80% for regions 5–8; and for a high-level disaster, the percentage is 75% for regions 1–4, 60% for regions 5–8, and 80% for regions 9–12. 

Q8. What are the limitations of the existing design models of HSCs?

they are all limited in their ability to design HSCs that are capable of guaranteeing good performance levels in spite of the consequences associated with the occurrence of a disaster. 

Q9. How many people can easily mobilize international generosity?

beyond 14,000 persons, it seems possible to easily mobilize international generosity, which is unlikely in the case of recurrent disasters.