A Two-Stage Approach for Medical Supplies Intermodal Transportation in Large-Scale Disaster Responses

Junhu Ruan, Xuping Wang and Yan Shi
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Junhu Ruan: Institute of Systems Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China
Xuping Wang: Institute of Systems Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China
Yan Shi: General Education Center, Tokai University, Kumamoto 862-8652, Japan

IJERPH, 2014, vol. 11, issue 11, 1-29

Abstract: We present a two-stage approach for the “helicopters and vehicles” intermodal transportation of medical supplies in large-scale disaster responses. In the first stage, a fuzzy-based method and its heuristic algorithm are developed to select the locations of temporary distribution centers (TDCs) and assign medial aid points (MAPs) to each TDC. In the second stage, an integer-programming model is developed to determine the delivery routes. Numerical experiments verified the effectiveness of the approach, and observed several findings: (i) More TDCs often increase the efficiency and utility of medical supplies; (ii) It is not definitely true that vehicles should load more and more medical supplies in emergency responses; (iii) The more contrasting the traveling speeds of helicopters and vehicles are, the more advantageous the intermodal transportation is.

Keywords: large-scale disasters; medical supplies; intermodal transportation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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