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A Network Transshipment Model for Planning Humanitarian Relief Operations After a Natural Disaster

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Book cover Decision Aid Models for Disaster Management and Emergencies

Part of the book series: Atlantis Computational Intelligence Systems ((ATLANTISCIS,volume 7))

Abstract

Every year, natural disasters and humanitarian crises affect approximately 200 million people, requiring the quick movement of goods and people to ease the human suffering and to return the population to some sense of normality. With contributions to humanitarian relief programmes falling short of what is required, programme managers need to become more cost-efficient and do more with less. The field of operational research (OR) has developed many models to help the commercial sector examine current practices and find ways of becoming more cost efficient. However, much of this good practice has not transferred to the humanitarian field. This paper develops a mathematical transshipment multi-commodity supply-chain flow model for use within humanitarian relief operations. A small data set, based on real life data from the South Asian Earthquake of October 2005, is used to validate the model solutions compared to the real life situation. Several variants of the model are developed to add realism and flexibility over a number of possible scenarios. From the variant solutions several recommendations are made to provide guidance on planning for humanitarian relief operations.

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Acknowledgments

We wish to thank the referees for their careful reading of the article. Their constructive comments, queries and suggestions enabled us to improve its quality, clarity and readability.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Engineering Design and Mathematics, University of the West of England, Bristol, BS16 1QY, U.K

    Alistair Clark & Bernadette Culkin

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  1. Alistair Clark
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  2. Bernadette Culkin
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Correspondence to Alistair Clark .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Facultad de Ciencias Matemáticas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Plaza de las Ciencias 3, Madrid, 28040, Spain

    Begoña Vitoriano

  2. , Dept. Of Statistics, Compulutense University, Plaza de Ciencias 3, Madrid, 28040, Spain

    Javier Montero

  3. Center (SCK CEN), Belgian Nuclear Research, Boeretang 200, Mol, 2400, Belgium

    Da Ruan

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Clark, A., Culkin, B. (2013). A Network Transshipment Model for Planning Humanitarian Relief Operations After a Natural Disaster. In: Vitoriano, B., Montero, J., Ruan, D. (eds) Decision Aid Models for Disaster Management and Emergencies. Atlantis Computational Intelligence Systems, vol 7. Atlantis Press, Paris. https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-91216-74-9_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-91216-74-9_11

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  • Publisher Name: Atlantis Press, Paris

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-91216-73-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-91216-74-9

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