Title: A mathematical approach to model humanitarian aid distribution in disaster area

Authors: Takoua Mastouri; Monia Rekik; Mustapha Nour El Fath

Addresses: Faculté des sciences et de genie, Université Laval, Québec, G1V0A6, Canada ' Faculté des sciences de l'administration, Université Laval, Québec, G1V0A6, Canada ' Faculté des sciences et de genie, Université Laval, Québec, G1V0A6, Canada

Abstract: This paper deals with the response phase of humanitarian relief. We model the first operations of distribution of humanitarian aid in a disaster area that correspond to a rich vehicle routing problem (VRP) where we aim at minimising maximum delivery time. Regarding the model attributes' complexity, we develop a column generation approach to solve the optimisation model. This approach relies on a specific pricing problem that generates routes with negative reduced costs to add to the master problem. These routes define the sequence of demand points to visit and the quantities to be carried to each one.

Keywords: humanitarian aid distribution; column generation; humanitarian logistics; vehicle routing problem; VRP; split delivery.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEM.2017.085018

International Journal of Emergency Management, 2017 Vol.13 No.3, pp.252 - 267

Received: 23 Oct 2015
Accepted: 15 Feb 2016
Published online: 10 Jul 2017 *

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