Modeling prepositioning of resources for humanitarian logistics

Abstract

Prepositioning of resources for humanitarian assistance to the victims of natural disaster is an important consideration to mitigate the problem that occurs due to the shortage in the supply of resources. Prepositioned resources should be distributed in the affected areas. Although prepositioning of the resources in natural cases like an earthquake is difficult, it can be done more systematically in the hurricane-prone, flood-prone zones. The distribution mechanism, network, supply of resources and quantities, feasible supply routes and transfer of the materials from one or several supply centers become some of the issues that can be studied systematically through the modeling process and is the focus of this paper. A model is developed and a small case has been used to test the model. The results and repercussions have also been discussed.