Planning Emergency Shelters for Urban Disaster Resilience: An Integrated Location-Allocation Modeling Approach

Laijun Zhao, Huiyong Li, Yan Sun, Rongbing Huang, Qingmi Hu, Jiajia Wang and Fei Gao
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Laijun Zhao: Sino-US Global Logistics Institute, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, China
Huiyong Li: School of Management, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China
Yan Sun: Sino-US Global Logistics Institute, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, China
Rongbing Huang: School of Administrative Studies, York University, Toronto, ON M3J 1P3, Canada
Qingmi Hu: Sino-US Global Logistics Institute, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, China
Jiajia Wang: Sino-US Global Logistics Institute, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, China
Fei Gao: Sino-US Global Logistics Institute, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, China

Sustainability, 2017, vol. 9, issue 11, 1-20

Abstract: In recent years, extreme natural hazards threaten cities more than ever due to contemporary society’s high vulnerability in cities. Hence, local governments need to implement risk mitigation and disaster operation management to enhance disaster resilience in cities. Transforming existing open spaces within cities into emergency shelters is an effective method of providing essential life support and an agent of recovery in the wake of disasters. Emergency shelters planning must identify suitable locations for shelters and reasonably allocate evacuees to those shelters. In this paper, we first consider both the buildings’ post-disaster condition and the human choice factor that affect evacuees’ decision, and propose a forecasting method to estimate the time-varying shelter demand. Then we formulate an integrated location-allocation model that is used sequentially: an emergency shelter location model to satisfy the time-varying shelter demand in a given urban area with a goal of minimizing the total setup cost of locating the shelters and an allocation model that allocates the evacuees to shelters with a goal of minimizing their total evacuation distance. We also develop an efficient algorithm to solve the model. Finally, we propose an emergency shelters planning based on a case study of Shanghai, China.

Keywords: disaster planning; emergency shelters; urban disaster resilience; location-allocation model; time-varying shelter demand (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:9:y:2017:i:11:p:2098-:d:118906

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