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Building disaster preparedness and response capacity in humanitarian supply chains using the Social Vulnerability Index

Author

Listed:
  • Alem, Douglas
  • Bonilla-Londono, Hector F.
  • Barbosa-Povoa, Ana Paula
  • Relvas, Susana
  • Ferreira, Deisemara
  • Moreno, Alfredo

Abstract

We present a novel humanitarian supply chain approach to address disaster preparedness and build response capacity in humanitarian supply chains when people’s vulnerability matters. Our primary motivation comes from the fact that disasters in Brazil are often associated with unequal distribution of opportunities and social inequalities that end up pushing more vulnerable people to risky areas or informal settlements. Moreover, investment in disaster management has dropped over the past few years in Brazil. In this way, we wonder: how to use the somewhat limited financial budget as effectively as possible towards meeting those that need the most while addressing disaster preparedness activities? To answer this question, we develop an optimization model to address location, capacity planning, prepositioning, local procurement, and relief aid flows’ decisions. Differently from most existing research, we adopt the so-called Social Vulnerability Index (SoVI) in the objective function to build enhanced response capacity in more vulnerable areas when the lack of resources makes impassable to fulfil all victims’ needs at once. Through a rich and real case-study based on the Brazilian Humanitarian Supply Chain, we come up with critical insights that can help to improve the humanitarian supply chain practices in the country. In particular, we show that the social benefit of using SoVI is as more significant as the vulnerability increases, which reveals the importance of considering this index to design more social-effective humanitarian supply chains.

Suggested Citation

  • Alem, Douglas & Bonilla-Londono, Hector F. & Barbosa-Povoa, Ana Paula & Relvas, Susana & Ferreira, Deisemara & Moreno, Alfredo, 2021. "Building disaster preparedness and response capacity in humanitarian supply chains using the Social Vulnerability Index," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 292(1), pages 250-275.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:ejores:v:292:y:2021:i:1:p:250-275
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ejor.2020.10.016
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Liu, Kanglin & Yang, Liu & Zhao, Yejia & Zhang, Zhi-Hai, 2023. "Multi-period stochastic programming for relief delivery considering evolving transportation network and temporary facility relocation/closure," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    2. Prima Denny Sentia & Syaimak Abdul Shukor & Amelia Natasya Abdul Wahab & Muriati Mukhtar, 2023. "Logistic distribution in humanitarian supply chain management: a thematic literature review and future research," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 323(1), pages 175-201, April.
    3. Liang, Siqi & Bai, Xuejie & Li, Yongli & Xin, Hening, 2023. "Model and solution of sustainable bi-level emergency commodity allocation based on type-2 fuzzy theory," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    4. Alem, Douglas & Caunhye, Aakil M. & Moreno, Alfredo, 2022. "Revisiting Gini for equitable humanitarian logistics," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 82(PB).
    5. Guo, Penghui & Zhu, Jianjun, 2023. "Capacity reservation for humanitarian relief: A logic-based Benders decomposition method with subgradient cut," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 311(3), pages 942-970.
    6. Sperling, Martina & Schryen, Guido, 2022. "Decision support for disaster relief: Coordinating spontaneous volunteers," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 299(2), pages 690-705.
    7. Karakoc, Deniz Berfin & Barker, Kash & González, Andrés D., 2023. "Analyzing the tradeoff between vulnerability and recoverability investments for interdependent infrastructure networks," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 87(PA).
    8. Young, Anisa & Tucker, Emily L. & Fernandez, Mariela & White, David & Brookover, Robert & Harris, Brandon, 2024. "An optimization approach to improve equitable access to local parks," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    9. Liu, Kanglin & Liu, Changchun & Xiang, Xi & Tian, Zhili, 2023. "Testing facility location and dynamic capacity planning for pandemics with demand uncertainty," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 304(1), pages 150-168.

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