01550557

Component

For many countries, floods are the most frequent and most destructive natural disaster. In recent years, the interest in mitigating the impact of floods and optimizing rescue operations has increased considerably among researchers and government agencies. This work presents a multi-period optimization model to identify the optimal location of shelters and the allocation of evacuees to shelters during a flood disaster. One innovative feature of the model is that it endogenously determines the best time to send evacuation orders to the affected populations. The authors propose a multi-period p-median location model, where the travel times vary over time depending on the road conditions. People’s reaction to the flood evolution is also considered to be dynamic. Specifically, the authors assume that the evacuees’ response to evacuation orders follows an S-shaped curve. The authors also assume that shelters become available in different time periods and have a limited capacity. The model identifies where and when to open a predefined number of shelters, when to send evacuation orders, and how to assign evacuees to shelters over time, while minimizing the overall network distances that evacuees have to travel to reach the shelters. The authors present a mathematical formulation for this model and illustrate its applicability using a case study. The case study highlights the importance and the benefits of adopting a dynamic approach for optimizing emergency response operations: scarce rescue resources (shelters, volunteers, and medical teams) are utilized in a more efficient way and the overall accessibility to shelters, measured in terms of travel times, is improved.

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ANB80 Emergency Evacuation.

01550057

15-3915

English

14p

2015

Transportation Research Board 94th Annual Meeting

Digital/other

Figures; Maps; References (32) ; Tables

Case studies; Disaster preparedness; Emergency management; Evacuation; Floods; Information dissemination; Mathematical models; Shelters

Safety and Human Factors; Security and Emergencies; Transportation (General); I21: Planning of Transport Infrastructure; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2015 Paper #15-3915

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Dec 30 2014 1:17PM