A model for emergency resources location and allocation under uncertainties

Timely and effective location and allocation of emergency resources for disasters are of paramount importance in an emergency distribution function, particularly when those resources have a significant impact on the survival rate of the victims. In this paper a stochastic programming model is proposed for determining an emergency resources layout system in certain disasters to help provide a higher quality resources safeguard to emergency distribution systems. Since it is difficult to predict the scale of any disaster and its impact, both the scale and the subsequent resources requirements in the disposition process of the proposed model are represented as random variables. Their randomness is represented by a finite sample of scenarios. The proposed model is then solved using a Dual Decomposition algorithm in order to cope with its special structure. Finally, a case study is used to demonstrate the significance of the proposed model as well as the efficiency of the strategy for offering the solutions.