Humanitarian relief supply chain: a multi-objective model and solution

Abstract

This paper models a humanitarian relief chain that includes a relief goods supply chain and an evacuation chain in case of a natural disaster. Optimum network flow is studied for both the chains by considering three conflicting objectives, namely demand satisfaction in relief chain, demand satisfaction in evacuation chain and overall logistics cost. The relief goods supply chain consists of three echelons: suppliers, relief camps and affected areas. The evacuation chain consists of two echelons: evacuation camps and affected areas. The model has been made more resilient by considering multiple paths between any two locations and disruption of camps and paths due to natural factors. The Mixed Integer Programming problem has been solved using NSGA-III and results have been compared to those from benchmark algorithms. The model has been successfully tested on generated real-life-like data.