OR Spectrum: Quantitative Approaches in Management
Resumen
Disasters are likely to cause disruptions on transportation networks. Such disruptions have the potential of obstructing the performance of post-disaster relief operations, whose objective is to serve the affected population promptly. Therefore, it is important to develop strategic plans for restoring the transportation networks in the aftermath of a disaster. In this study, we address the problem of coordinating road network restoration and relief activities under the presence of heterogeneous types of roads disruptions. In this regard, we present a mathematical model for scheduling and routing restoration machines as well as relief vehicles. The approach seeks a restoration plan that is devoted to providing support to the relief operations. This implies prioritizing road rehabilitations taking into consideration their impact on the efficiency of relief activities. Additionally, we provide a heuristic algorithm to solve large instances of our problem for which commercial optimizers are insufficient. The approach is applied on a realistic case study based on the flooding which occurred in the Mojana region of northern Colombia in 2010–2011.
