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Understanding Decision Support in Large-Scale Disasters: Challenges in Humanitarian Logistics Distribution

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Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management in Mediterranean Countries (ISCRAM-med 2017)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing ((LNBIP,volume 301))

Abstract

Disasters are characterized by conflicting, uncertain, or lacking data. Nevertheless, humanitarian responders need to make rapid decisions. This is particularly true for the immediate response to a sudden onset disaster. Since most humanitarian decision support systems (DSS) make important assumptions on data availability and quality that are often not fulfilled in practice, decision-makers are largely left to their experience. In this paper, we identify three major challenges for an operational DSS to support distribution planning: (i) deep uncertainty; (ii) reflecting field conditions and constraints; and (iii) rapid humanitarian logistics modeling. We review the relevant theories and provide an outline of the system requirements to develop a system for operational responders to achieve targeted service level on distribution of disaster relief through proper utilization of resources, time and scheduling.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Agder, Kristiansand, Norway

    Mohammad Tafiqur Rahman & Tim A. Majchrzak

  2. Delft University of Technology, Delft, Netherlands

    Tina Comes

Authors
  1. Mohammad Tafiqur Rahman
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  2. Tina Comes
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  3. Tim A. Majchrzak
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mohammad Tafiqur Rahman .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace, Xanthi, Greece

    Ioannis M. Dokas

  2. Ecole Nationale des Sciences de l’Informatique & Laboratoire RIADI, Université de la Manouba, Manouba, Tunisia

    Narjès Bellamine-Ben Saoud

  3. Laboratoire d’Informatique, Université de Grenoble, Saint-Martin-d’Hères, France

    Julie Dugdale

  4. Departamento de Informática, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    Paloma Díaz

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Rahman, M.T., Comes, T., Majchrzak, T.A. (2017). Understanding Decision Support in Large-Scale Disasters: Challenges in Humanitarian Logistics Distribution. In: Dokas, I., Bellamine-Ben Saoud, N., Dugdale, J., Díaz, P. (eds) Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management in Mediterranean Countries. ISCRAM-med 2017. Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, vol 301. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67633-3_9

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