Early stage response problem for post-disaster incidents

ABSTRACT

Research on evacuation plans for reducing damages and casualties has been conducted to advise defenders against threats. However, despite the attention given to the research in the past, emergency response management, designed to neutralize hazards, has been undermined since planners frequently fail to apprehend the complexities and contexts of the emergency situation. Therefore, this study considers a response problem with unique characteristics for the duration of the emergency. An early stage response problem is identified to find the optimal routing and scheduling plan for responders to prevent further hazards. Due to the complexity of the proposed mathematical model, two algorithms are developed. Data from a high-rise building, called Central City in Seoul, Korea, are used to evaluate the algorithms. Results show that the proposed algorithms can procure near-optimal solutions within a reasonable time.

KEYWORDS:

• Disaster response logistics
• response time minimization
• evacuation modelling and management
• emergency response team

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIT) [grant number 2017R1A2B2007812 and 2015R1A2A1A10054253].

ORCID

Ilkyeong Moon http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7072-1351