Site Selection Models in Natural Disaster Shelters: A Review

Yunjia Ma, Wei Xu, Lianjie Qin and Xiujuan Zhao
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Yunjia Ma: Key Laboratory of Environmental Change and Natural Disaster of Ministry of Education, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
Wei Xu: Key Laboratory of Environmental Change and Natural Disaster of Ministry of Education, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
Lianjie Qin: Key Laboratory of Environmental Change and Natural Disaster of Ministry of Education, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
Xiujuan Zhao: Department of Engineering Physics, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 2, 1-24

Abstract: Constructing natural disaster shelters is important for disaster emergency management, and site selection models provide a feasible technique and method. This paper presents site selection models for natural disaster shelters. A synthesis of the types, objectives, constraints, methods of solutions, targeted disasters and applications of different site selection models for natural disaster shelters is investigated. Shelter location models can be classified as single-objective models, multiobjective models and hierarchical models, according to the objective and hierarchy type. Minimizing the evacuation distance or time, shelter construction cost or number, and the total risk are the general objectives of the models. Intelligent optimization algorithms are widely used to solve the models, instead of the Geographic Information System (GIS) method, due to the complexity of the problem. The results indicate that the following should be the main focuses of future works: How to set a model that can be applied for determining the shelter locations of multiple disasters; how to consider the uncertainty in the models; how to improve the existing algorithms or models to solve large-scale location-allocation problems; and how to develop a new resource-saving model that is consistent with the concept of sustainable development, as advocated by shelter planners and policy makers, which can be applied in real situations. This study allows those undertaking shelter location research to situate their work within the context of shelter planning.

Keywords: natural disaster; shelters; site selection problem; optimization model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

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