01154989

Component

The need to create effective plans for distributing aid after a hurricane is of increasing importance, as recent research suggests stronger storms will be affecting more people located throughout the southeastern United States in the immediate future. Research shows that not all people will choose to evacuate an at risk region or seek protection at shelters. To this point there have been relatively few studies exploring the use of network flow models in post-hurricane settings to accomplish efficient placements of facilities with services. Despite the fact that hurricane relief strategies could benefit from a standardized methodology that reliably provides efficient placements for relief facilities, no researchers have examined the possibility of implementing a hierarchical structure among these facilities. This paper suggests a type of hierarchical capacitated-median model for this purpose. Two variations of this model are tested and their solutions are compared to that of a non-hierarchical version of the capacitated-median model. The paper finds that if there is limited availability of certain services it could be useful to employ the use of a hierarchical capacitated-median problem to help place distinct facilities that provide different levels of assistance.

01147878

10-0706

English

18p

2010

Transportation Research Board 89th Annual Meeting

DVD

Maps (2) ; References; Tables (3)

Disaster preparedness; Disaster relief; Disasters and emergency operations; First aid; Hurricanes; Risk assessment; Shelters; Transportation policy

Southeastern United States

Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Planning and Forecasting; Security and Emergencies; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2010 Paper #10-0706

TRIS, TRB

Jan 25 2010 10:20AM