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A covering tour approach to the location of satellite distribution centers to supply humanitarian aid

Author

Listed:
  • Naji-Azimi, Z.
  • Renaud, J.
  • Ruiz, A.
  • Salari, M.

Abstract

This article concerns the location of satellite distribution centers (SDCs) to supply humanitarian aid to the affected people throughout a disaster area. In such situations, it is not possible for the relief teams to visit every single home. Instead, the people are required to go to a satellite distribution center in order to obtain survival goods, provided that these centers are not too far from their homes. The SDCs are usually within walking distance. However, these SDCs need to be supplied from a central depot, using a heterogeneous and capacitated fleet of vehicles. We model this situation as a generalization of the covering tour problem, introduce the idea of split delivery, and propose an efficient heuristic approach to solve it. Numerical experiments on randomly-generated data show that, first, only very small instances can be solved efficiently using the mathematical model and, second, our heuristic produces high-quality solutions and solves real-size instances in a reasonable computing time.

Suggested Citation

  • Naji-Azimi, Z. & Renaud, J. & Ruiz, A. & Salari, M., 2012. "A covering tour approach to the location of satellite distribution centers to supply humanitarian aid," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 222(3), pages 596-605.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ejores:v:222:y:2012:i:3:p:596-605
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ejor.2012.05.001
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    References listed on IDEAS

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