WIT Press


Models For Humanitarian Logistics

Price

Free (open access)

Volume

155

Pages

11

Page Range

1079 - 1089

Published

2012

Size

353 kb

Paper DOI

10.2495/SC120902

Copyright

WIT Press

Author(s)

F. Russo & M. R. Trecozzi

Abstract

Emergency logistics is a process to organize and distribute resources during emergency conditions in the area affected by a disastrous event. By means of emergency logistics is possible to reduce disaster impacts that are natural or anthropic, after an event has occurred. During emergency conditions planning is needed to continue evacuation activities after the time when the final effects occur and people cannot be rescued. For evacuation activities resources must be identified to allocate in the area affected of the disastrous event according to elementary work classes. In this paper we focus on resources, in particular we consider the relief vehicles and their distribution channels. We propose two distribution channel models: the first one is transhipment, when the relief vehicles go to the emergency area with one contact point; the second model is point to point, when the relief vehicles go to the emergency area without any contact point. Keywords: emergency condition, relief vehicles, distribution channels. 1 Introduction Risk (R) can be evaluated in probabilistic terms by basic components: occurrence (P) of an event in terms of probability or frequency of a specific event actually happening; vulnerability (V), related to the resistance of the infrastructures when the event occurs; exposure (N), that is an equivalent homogeneous weighted value of people, goods and infrastructures affected during and after the event [1–3]. The general equation of risk can be written in the form: R = P V N

Keywords

emergency condition, relief vehicles, distribution channels.