Relief-Chain Logistics in Natural Disasters
Relief-Chain Logistics in Natural Disasters
Springer India 2016
Purvishkumar Patel, Repaul Kanji, and Rajat Agrawal
Introduction
Disasters have mostly become the price that we pay for the uncontrolled progress
that we are making. Both natural and man-made disasters can be explained as direct
or indirect consequences of the so-called urbanization and development that we are
undergoing at the cost of exploiting the natural cycles. It is often said that the
occurrence of disasters cannot be controlled and hence it becomes pretty important
that we somehow mitigate its effects and manage the aftermath so as to ensure
minimum social and economic loss. It is here where relief-chain logistics comes in
handy and plays the pivotal role. This paper would cover the entire spectrum of a
successful relief operation using humanitarian aspects as well as technological.
The Cycle
Before we move into the vitals, we should be aware of the stages that circumscribe a
disaster management activity of which relief chain is an integral part. The following
figure shows relevance of humanitarian logistics in different phases and stages
inside phases of a disaster management cycle (Fig. 20.1).
Of all these stages, we argue that more concentration of efforts is required in
the response and recovery phases, as both these stages have high relevance of
humanitarian logistics in disaster management. However, other stages also have
explicit roles, but they are limited to initial preparations and staging. The response
and recovery phases demand agile supply chain and integrated logistics solutions
for disaster management. As the further stages of the disaster management cycle are
encountered, the supply chain loses agility and becomes more conventional.
Humanitarian supply chains should be highly agile as demands are unpredictable
and change very fast. Agility is usually defined as the ability to respond to
unexpected changes when demand is unpredictable (response and recovery phases).
Prep Work and Strategic Planning for Disaster Relief
Prep Work
Even before anything goes wrong or a disaster strikes, it is important to stay
prepared because, “Prevention is better than cure.” There are a lot of things that
can be done to increase the preparedness depending on the affluence and ability of
the community. First and foremost, a hazard assessment should be done on a local/
regional/state/national basis to understand the probable threats and dangers. This is
called hazard mapping or even hazard zonation. Transportation and logistics
operations are greatly influenced by spatial structure at the local, regional, and
global levels. Given the type and nature of threat(s) along with the spatial parameters,
hazard zonation becomes an important input for relief-chain logistics as and
when required (Dangermond 1991). In places where threats are prominent (e.g.,
seismic zones IV and V for earthquakes, villages and towns near mountains with
loose soil and rocks for landslides, etc.), the preparations required are a notch
higher. The state/district disaster management authority should maintain a proper
record of all the resources they have. Resources include everything from contingency
fund and relief aid and materials to technological infrastructure. Not only the
account but also the sources (where they can be found, in what quantity) need to be
recorded. Depending on the geographical spread of the area, the resources should be
distributed at different heads instead of storing them at a single source. Storing
resources at different heads is not a singular problem but instead involves a very
strategic approach, and it is here where technology comes in handy. It is important
to have a lineup of responsible people, volunteers who are well versed with the
drills, and the actions which are necessary to be taken in an emergency. There could
be various such groups of efficient people; however, of them the three majorly
required groups are firstly those people who are technologically sound, that is, they
are proficient in handling the technological aspects like issuing of emergency
signals and warnings, tracking of human as well as relief resources, and coordinating
with the external and higher authorities. Secondly, a group efficient in search
and rescue operations is primarily required, and it is advisable to have local people
recruited for this purpose, as local people would be more aware of the terrain and
local dialect of the people easing the rescue operation. And finally, we do need a
team of medical practitioners to treat the wounded and affected. Thus, it becomes
quite obvious that the service of relief, rescue, and aid to be provided during an
emergency/disaster constitutes a humanitarian chain.
Stage-Wise Strategic Planning for Disaster Relief
The strategic plans for a disaster relief activities involve tasks such as determining
community needs, estimating disaster conditions, its uncertainties, information
quality and complexity, developing coordination plans among various actors of a
disaster relief chain, establishing communication channels both internally within
the given organization or aid agency and externally within different organizations,
logistics companies, army, NGOs, etc., rationalizing the supply base and encouraging
trust and commitment among every actors in the disaster relief supply chain.
In the preparedness stage, tasks like selection of supply vendors, selection of
logistics support vendors, deciding storage amount and locations, temporary storage
locations, etc., should be made. Demand distribution, supply chain capacity
distribution, lead times, and other relevant parameters should be calculated with the
tools of stochastic optimization. In the response and recovery stages, supply
purchase plans, availing the supplies at the storage, identifying the demand spots,
supplying at the demand spots, and rescue and evacuation plans should be made. In
the next section we will see tools and technologies that can be used for drafting
these strategies and executing a disaster relief chain (Altay et al. 2009).
Tools and Technologies for Effective Relief-Chain Logistics
Agility, responsiveness, flexibility, authenticity of demand amount and location,
cross-sectional coordination, and satisfying the demand at the right place, at the
right time, and in the right quantity are the main aspects of a disaster relief chain.
Following are the tools and technologies that can be used for satisfying most of the
abovementioned aspects’ requirements for running a smooth, efficient, and effective
disaster relief chain.
GIS for Contingency Planning in Agile Relief Chains
A GIS (geographic information system) captures, stores, manipulates, analyzes,
manages, and presents all types of geographic data. GIS gives a very vivid idea of
the area, about its geography, topography, possible means of communications,
lifeline services, etc. Although GIS is highly useful in almost all the phases of
disaster management cycle, we will see its analytical and decisive power in
contingency planning for response and recovery humanitarian logistics actions.
To indicate the vulnerability, disaster managers can generate maps both at microand
macro-level in pre-disaster situation. Locations likely to remain undamaged,
unaffected, or relatively safe can be scientifically identified. Such locations can
probably be used as temporary warehouses, storage, and/or shelters during the
execution of logistic actions in post-disaster situations. Alternate routes to the
impact location, relief camps, shelters, and other important locations can be worked
out. The involvement of GIS gives an added advantage of zone buffering according
to the various levels of risks which in turn would decide the quantity of a particular
resource to be stored. Now here is the catch, one might feel that with increased risk,
it would be more logical to store a higher amount of relief materials, but often the
negative probability gets ignored that with increased risk, the risk of damage of the
resources also increases and hence the amount of storage is to be a function of the
risk of the area and the demographic factors of the area [amount¼f (risk, demographic
factors like population density and sex ratio)]. The important demographic
factors that need to be considered are population, population density, and sex ratio.
In this context, it is advisable to have census blocks; these blocks are geographical
regions of which the disaster management authority has complete demographic
information (Dunn 1992).
Emergency/Crisis Maps for Improving Responsiveness of a Relief Chain
Generating emergency maps or crisis maps is a run-time phenomenon. Various map
providers (e.g., Google Maps) provide various tools (e.g., Google Maps Engine
Lite) for creating customized maps for specific application (let us say a rescue/relief
operation). These maps are open to edit by authorized persons/officials, or it can
even be made editable by anybody who is connected to the Internet. Such emergency
maps can be easily integrated with a GIS as a separate layer in it, and hence
the combined mathematical, statistical, and analytical power of GIS and emergency
maps becomes an important information input for logistics operations. With the
help of such emergency digital maps, reliable information can be marked on the
map with other important information. For example, if a local person/official wants
to share information of a landslide in his area, he can edit the emergency map by
marking the impact spot, the probable number of affected people, the nearest
hospital, probable temporary relief station, etc. Such information becomes an
important asset for decision-making in logistics execution in a relief chain. Decisions
like where to stock, what to stock, vehicle routing, fleet size, and fleet type
requirements (helicopters, trucks, buses, ambulances, etc.) can be efficiently
worked out. Coordination between different bodies like government, military,
NGOs, aid agencies, logistics companies, rescue operators, and others can be
smoothly made. In general, such emergency maps can play a vital role in making
the relief supply chain effective and flexible.
Real-Time Tracking and Monitoring
The success (or failure) of management of a disaster is particularly dependent on
how the rescue, relief, and logistical operations are carried out. These operations
have to be executed immediately after the disaster strikes, when there is an
immense political, social, and psychological pressure and tension. Every decision
taken and every second spent on such operations may directly affect many human
lives! To ensure the correct execution of such operations, live tracking or real-time
tracking technologies can be used. Rescue operators, vehicles (trucks, ambulances,
goods carriages, etc.), and relief materials (food, drinking water, medicines, blood
bottles, etc.) can be easily tracked for getting information about their current
location, their velocity, whether they are moving on correct path, and their probable
time of arrival, and other relevant information for managing relief chains can be
obtained. A central monitoring station can monitor these tracking activities and can
guide the rescue operators to move in a particular direction at a particular spot.
Different technologies can be used for live tracking of these assets and actors in
relief chains.
Springer India 2016
Purvishkumar Patel, Repaul Kanji, and Rajat Agrawal
Introduction
Disasters have mostly become the price that we pay for the uncontrolled progress
that we are making. Both natural and man-made disasters can be explained as direct
or indirect consequences of the so-called urbanization and development that we are
undergoing at the cost of exploiting the natural cycles. It is often said that the
occurrence of disasters cannot be controlled and hence it becomes pretty important
that we somehow mitigate its effects and manage the aftermath so as to ensure
minimum social and economic loss. It is here where relief-chain logistics comes in
handy and plays the pivotal role. This paper would cover the entire spectrum of a
successful relief operation using humanitarian aspects as well as technological.
The Cycle
Before we move into the vitals, we should be aware of the stages that circumscribe a
disaster management activity of which relief chain is an integral part. The following
figure shows relevance of humanitarian logistics in different phases and stages
inside phases of a disaster management cycle (Fig. 20.1).
Of all these stages, we argue that more concentration of efforts is required in
the response and recovery phases, as both these stages have high relevance of
humanitarian logistics in disaster management. However, other stages also have
explicit roles, but they are limited to initial preparations and staging. The response
and recovery phases demand agile supply chain and integrated logistics solutions
for disaster management. As the further stages of the disaster management cycle are
encountered, the supply chain loses agility and becomes more conventional.
Humanitarian supply chains should be highly agile as demands are unpredictable
and change very fast. Agility is usually defined as the ability to respond to
unexpected changes when demand is unpredictable (response and recovery phases).
Prep Work and Strategic Planning for Disaster Relief
Prep Work
Even before anything goes wrong or a disaster strikes, it is important to stay
prepared because, “Prevention is better than cure.” There are a lot of things that
can be done to increase the preparedness depending on the affluence and ability of
the community. First and foremost, a hazard assessment should be done on a local/
regional/state/national basis to understand the probable threats and dangers. This is
called hazard mapping or even hazard zonation. Transportation and logistics
operations are greatly influenced by spatial structure at the local, regional, and
global levels. Given the type and nature of threat(s) along with the spatial parameters,
hazard zonation becomes an important input for relief-chain logistics as and
when required (Dangermond 1991). In places where threats are prominent (e.g.,
seismic zones IV and V for earthquakes, villages and towns near mountains with
loose soil and rocks for landslides, etc.), the preparations required are a notch
higher. The state/district disaster management authority should maintain a proper
record of all the resources they have. Resources include everything from contingency
fund and relief aid and materials to technological infrastructure. Not only the
account but also the sources (where they can be found, in what quantity) need to be
recorded. Depending on the geographical spread of the area, the resources should be
distributed at different heads instead of storing them at a single source. Storing
resources at different heads is not a singular problem but instead involves a very
strategic approach, and it is here where technology comes in handy. It is important
to have a lineup of responsible people, volunteers who are well versed with the
drills, and the actions which are necessary to be taken in an emergency. There could
be various such groups of efficient people; however, of them the three majorly
required groups are firstly those people who are technologically sound, that is, they
are proficient in handling the technological aspects like issuing of emergency
signals and warnings, tracking of human as well as relief resources, and coordinating
with the external and higher authorities. Secondly, a group efficient in search
and rescue operations is primarily required, and it is advisable to have local people
recruited for this purpose, as local people would be more aware of the terrain and
local dialect of the people easing the rescue operation. And finally, we do need a
team of medical practitioners to treat the wounded and affected. Thus, it becomes
quite obvious that the service of relief, rescue, and aid to be provided during an
emergency/disaster constitutes a humanitarian chain.
Stage-Wise Strategic Planning for Disaster Relief
The strategic plans for a disaster relief activities involve tasks such as determining
community needs, estimating disaster conditions, its uncertainties, information
quality and complexity, developing coordination plans among various actors of a
disaster relief chain, establishing communication channels both internally within
the given organization or aid agency and externally within different organizations,
logistics companies, army, NGOs, etc., rationalizing the supply base and encouraging
trust and commitment among every actors in the disaster relief supply chain.
In the preparedness stage, tasks like selection of supply vendors, selection of
logistics support vendors, deciding storage amount and locations, temporary storage
locations, etc., should be made. Demand distribution, supply chain capacity
distribution, lead times, and other relevant parameters should be calculated with the
tools of stochastic optimization. In the response and recovery stages, supply
purchase plans, availing the supplies at the storage, identifying the demand spots,
supplying at the demand spots, and rescue and evacuation plans should be made. In
the next section we will see tools and technologies that can be used for drafting
these strategies and executing a disaster relief chain (Altay et al. 2009).
Tools and Technologies for Effective Relief-Chain Logistics
Agility, responsiveness, flexibility, authenticity of demand amount and location,
cross-sectional coordination, and satisfying the demand at the right place, at the
right time, and in the right quantity are the main aspects of a disaster relief chain.
Following are the tools and technologies that can be used for satisfying most of the
abovementioned aspects’ requirements for running a smooth, efficient, and effective
disaster relief chain.
GIS for Contingency Planning in Agile Relief Chains
A GIS (geographic information system) captures, stores, manipulates, analyzes,
manages, and presents all types of geographic data. GIS gives a very vivid idea of
the area, about its geography, topography, possible means of communications,
lifeline services, etc. Although GIS is highly useful in almost all the phases of
disaster management cycle, we will see its analytical and decisive power in
contingency planning for response and recovery humanitarian logistics actions.
To indicate the vulnerability, disaster managers can generate maps both at microand
macro-level in pre-disaster situation. Locations likely to remain undamaged,
unaffected, or relatively safe can be scientifically identified. Such locations can
probably be used as temporary warehouses, storage, and/or shelters during the
execution of logistic actions in post-disaster situations. Alternate routes to the
impact location, relief camps, shelters, and other important locations can be worked
out. The involvement of GIS gives an added advantage of zone buffering according
to the various levels of risks which in turn would decide the quantity of a particular
resource to be stored. Now here is the catch, one might feel that with increased risk,
it would be more logical to store a higher amount of relief materials, but often the
negative probability gets ignored that with increased risk, the risk of damage of the
resources also increases and hence the amount of storage is to be a function of the
risk of the area and the demographic factors of the area [amount¼f (risk, demographic
factors like population density and sex ratio)]. The important demographic
factors that need to be considered are population, population density, and sex ratio.
In this context, it is advisable to have census blocks; these blocks are geographical
regions of which the disaster management authority has complete demographic
information (Dunn 1992).
Emergency/Crisis Maps for Improving Responsiveness of a Relief Chain
Generating emergency maps or crisis maps is a run-time phenomenon. Various map
providers (e.g., Google Maps) provide various tools (e.g., Google Maps Engine
Lite) for creating customized maps for specific application (let us say a rescue/relief
operation). These maps are open to edit by authorized persons/officials, or it can
even be made editable by anybody who is connected to the Internet. Such emergency
maps can be easily integrated with a GIS as a separate layer in it, and hence
the combined mathematical, statistical, and analytical power of GIS and emergency
maps becomes an important information input for logistics operations. With the
help of such emergency digital maps, reliable information can be marked on the
map with other important information. For example, if a local person/official wants
to share information of a landslide in his area, he can edit the emergency map by
marking the impact spot, the probable number of affected people, the nearest
hospital, probable temporary relief station, etc. Such information becomes an
important asset for decision-making in logistics execution in a relief chain. Decisions
like where to stock, what to stock, vehicle routing, fleet size, and fleet type
requirements (helicopters, trucks, buses, ambulances, etc.) can be efficiently
worked out. Coordination between different bodies like government, military,
NGOs, aid agencies, logistics companies, rescue operators, and others can be
smoothly made. In general, such emergency maps can play a vital role in making
the relief supply chain effective and flexible.
Real-Time Tracking and Monitoring
The success (or failure) of management of a disaster is particularly dependent on
how the rescue, relief, and logistical operations are carried out. These operations
have to be executed immediately after the disaster strikes, when there is an
immense political, social, and psychological pressure and tension. Every decision
taken and every second spent on such operations may directly affect many human
lives! To ensure the correct execution of such operations, live tracking or real-time
tracking technologies can be used. Rescue operators, vehicles (trucks, ambulances,
goods carriages, etc.), and relief materials (food, drinking water, medicines, blood
bottles, etc.) can be easily tracked for getting information about their current
location, their velocity, whether they are moving on correct path, and their probable
time of arrival, and other relevant information for managing relief chains can be
obtained. A central monitoring station can monitor these tracking activities and can
guide the rescue operators to move in a particular direction at a particular spot.
Different technologies can be used for live tracking of these assets and actors in
relief chains.
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