Multi-objective Location-Transportation Problem for Relief Distribution

Abstract

The problem that is often encountered in every natural disaster is material damage and even loss of life; thus, systematic steps to reduce or prevent the impact of disasters are needed. A quick response is the main thing to carry out disaster management when a disaster occurs. The steps taken are mobilizing and deploying emergency services to protect people and reduce material damage within the affected areas. The primary response to minimize the impact is to distribute humanitarian aid. The distribution of aid includes 2 aspects: the speed of delivery of aid and the fulfillment of all the needs of disaster victims. This aspect is related to predicting the amount and time of distribution of necessities to be adequately distributed. Prediction of demand and distribution is influenced by many factors, including distance, availability of vehicles, number of affected people, operational time of aid providers, local conditions such as roads, needs of population groups, etc. This study aims to modify the existing mathematical model for the Multi-Objective Location-Transportation Problem. This modification was carried out to determine the number and time of effective delivery of essential goods based on heterogeneous vehicle capacities. This model was then applied to a case study for the distribution of goods during a volcanic eruption using data from Mount Bromo, East Java, Indonesia. The model development and application results in the case study show information on the number and timing of effective delivery of essential humanitarian aid items based on the available vehicle capacity at the location according to the conditions of the disaster location.