A scenario-based decision support system for allocating temporary-disaster-response facilities

Abstract

Disaster operations management is carried out in a chaotic environment under uncertainty and time pressure. Therefore, it is necessary to use information and communication technologies in the decision making processes. In this study, a standalone decision support system is developed for temporary-disaster-response facilities allocation for relief supplies distribution as one of the important problems in disaster operations management. The decision support system consists of three main components as its database, decision engine and user interface. It is noted that the decision support system allows decision makers to allocate temporary-disaster-response facilities under many different disaster situations by utilizing a scenario-based approach. Thus, disaster operations managers are given the opportunity to create different scenarios and analyze the results that will help them make critical decisions before and during the disaster. In the scenario definition process, in addition to taking into account different values of affected population rate and planning period, some model configurations consisting of the combinations of various problem parameters are also defined. Although it is illustrated with a specific example case in this paper, the flexibility of the system allows its users to consider other cases with different scenarios. Due to the user-friendly interface of the decision support system, reports of the results obtained for various disaster scenarios are presented to the user in an understandable way. The proposed system might be a useful tool to help decision makers in allocating temporary-disaster-response facilities for relief supplies distribution.