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Emergency evacuation planning in natural disasters under diverse population and fleet characteristics

Evangelia Baou (School of Engineering, Department of Financial and Management Engineering, University of the Aegean, Chios, Greece)
Vasilis P. Koutras (School of Engineering, Department of Financial and Management Engineering, University of the Aegean, Chios, Greece)
Vasileios Zeimpekis (School of Engineering, Department of Financial and Management Engineering, University of the Aegean, Chios, Greece)
Ioannis Minis (School of Engineering, Department of Financial and Management Engineering, University of the Aegean, Chios, Greece)

Journal of Humanitarian Logistics and Supply Chain Management

ISSN: 2042-6747

Article publication date: 14 November 2018

Issue publication date: 14 November 2018

439

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to formulate and solve a new emergency evacuation planning problem. This problem addresses the needs of both able and disabled persons who are evacuated from multiple pick-up locations and transported using a heterogeneous fleet of vehicles.

Design/methodology/approach

The problem is formulated using a mixed integer linear programming model and solved using a heuristic algorithm. The authors analyze the selected heuristic with respect to key parameters and use it to address theoretical and practical case studies.

Findings

Evacuating people with disabilities has a significant impact on total evacuation time, due to increased loading/unloading times. Additionally, increasing the number of large capacity vehicles adapted to transport individuals with disabilities benefits total evacuation time.

Research limitations/implications

The mathematical model is of high complexity and it is not possible to obtain exact solutions in reasonable computational times. The efficiency of the heuristic has not been analyzed with respect to optimality.

Practical implications

Solving the problem by a heuristic provides a fast solution, a requirement in emergency evacuation cases, especially when the state of the theater of the emergency changes dynamically. The parametric analysis of the heuristic provides valuable insights in improving an emergency evacuation system.

Social implications

Efficient population evacuation studied in this work may save lives. This is especially critical for disabled evacuees, the evacuation of whom requires longer operational times.

Originality/value

The authors consider a population that comprises able and disabled individuals, the latter with varying degrees of disability. The authors also consider a heterogeneous fleet of vehicles, which perform multiple trips during the evacuation process.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

This research has been co-financed by the European Commission (DG ECHO) under the MELOGIC project (ECHO/SUB/2014/695769). The authors would like to thank the rest of the project partners namely European University Cyprus (EUC), Caritas Diocesana de Teruel, HANKEN School of Economics, and Red Cross Italy (Vicenza Chapter), and especially Professor George Boustras, Professor Gyöngyi Kovács, Mr Pierandrea Turchetti, and Mr Jose Guillen. The authors would also like to thank the associate editor and the reviewers for their helpful and constructive comments that have helped considerably in improving the original paper.

Citation

Baou, E., Koutras, V.P., Zeimpekis, V. and Minis, I. (2018), "Emergency evacuation planning in natural disasters under diverse population and fleet characteristics", Journal of Humanitarian Logistics and Supply Chain Management, Vol. 8 No. 4, pp. 447-476. https://doi.org/10.1108/JHLSCM-11-2017-0066

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited

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