Inventory pre-positioning for humanitarian operations

This research examines the impact of inventory pre-positioning on humanitarian operations. The study identifies optimal locations for warehousing non-consumable inventories required for initial deployment of aid. These facility location problems are geometric optimizations using mean annual homeless resulting from hazards (atmospheric disruptions, floods, waves, landslides, seismic disruptions, volcanoes and wildfires) as an indirect estimation of demand for infrastructure inventory. Minimization of per capita distance, or the average global distance from the nearest warehouse to a forecasted homeless person, is advanced as the objective. An array of formulations, solved using mixed-integer linear programs, predict optimal facility configurations, and corresponding per capita distances, under incremental facility constraints; thereby measuring sensitivity of mean distance to facility proliferation. The problems are devised to also gather insights into maximal covering and the effects of initial conditions.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Engineering Systems Division.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Akkihal, Anup Roop

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Edgar E. Blanco.

• Engineering Systems Division.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/36318

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/36318