Tradeoffs among Attributes of Resources in Humanitarian Operations: Evidence from United States Navy

Abstract

T his study offers a utility framework to identify assets for deployment into humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR) operations. We focus on attributes of the hard assets: capabilities for humanitarian missions, proximity to the affected area, and cost to the organization. We demonstrate the importance of this framework using the case of the United States Navy (USN). On a broader level, we offer a strategy for the decision makers to deploy appropriate assets for executing HADR smartly. Such a method, when employed with relevant data, can enhance efficiency for various organizations involved in HADR, whether military or not. We collected a large amount of data on the assets, specifically ships, of the USN. This collected data alone are a contribution to the literature. We use factor analysis to reduce the dimensionality and make the dataset manageable while simultaneously retaining the variation and maximal information in the data. Our results, in this case, show that planners need to consider costs to truly maximize utility, especially in cases where two assets, or a combination of them, have similar utility ratings but significantly different costs. Our findings also demonstrate that asset capabilities, proximity, and the duration of an HADR response matter. Finally, we employ our framework to illustrate how HADR responses to the 2010 Haiti and 2011 Tohoku earthquakes could have been conducted more effectively and efficiently.

The technology acceptance scale: Its Bayesian psychometrics assessed in a factor analysis via Markov chain Monte Carlo models

“…In Scopus, altogether 33 articles cited this reference whereas only 20 of them stem from subjects that are related to HF/E: 9 are from social sciences (Camilli & Fox, 2015;J. Chen, 2021;Gielen et al, 2018;Hornungová & Milichovský, 2019;Kaufmann & Schumacher, 2017;Levy et al, 2020;Loehlin & Beaujean, 2016;Milichovský, 2015;Piatek & Pinger, 2016), 7 from engineering (Apte et al, 2020;Gielen et al, 2018;Hornungová & Milichovský, 2019;Hu & Yang, 2017;Milichovský, 2015;Valera et al, 2020;Wang et al, 2019) and corresponding in-depth data analysis. However, the subchapter explicitly demonstrates coding the procedure according to "BayesFM" in the R programming language (Mair, 2018, pp.…”

Analysis of vertical lift capabilities of US Navy (USN) in Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR)

“…In certain instances, USN has not necessarily responded strategically to humanitarian disasters (Apte et al, 2013(Apte et al, , 2020Apte and Yoho, 2018). The kneejerk reaction of USN to divert whatever vessel is in the vicinity of the affected area has resulted in high costs and marginal HADR.…”

“…But when cost is considered, the Amphibious ships and Landing Dock ships along with PM-2 and PM-8 delivered more-significant HADR. Apte et al (2020) concluded that, "planners need to consider costs to truly maximize utility, especially in cases where two assets, or a combination of them, have similar utility ratings but significantly different costs. Our findings also demonstrate that asset capabilities, proximity, and the duration of an HADR response matter.…”

“…Though the figure shows the diversions from 1900, due to climate change and other issues frequency of diversions for HADR increased the later years. Given this, it is best if USN is better prepared to deploy its most valuable and expensive capability, vertical lift (Apte et al, 2020;Moffat, 2014;Ures, 2011).…”

“…Information on the efficiency and efficacy of assets is useful in pre-disaster planning. Vertical lift assets (helicopters) are a vital and expensive resource for disaster response (Apte et al, 2020;Moffat, 2014;Ures, 2011). Information about what supplies are needed and where they are needed will evolve in the hours and days following a disaster.…”