Collaborative Truck/Drone Routing Problem: An Application to Disaster Logistics

This study aimed to assess the impact of the Physical Education–Integrated Disaster Preparedness and Response Program on the disaster readiness of tertiary students. The program, implemented within the PATHFIT course at Jose Rizal University, combined physical disaster drills with reflective activities to improve students’ emergency response capabilities. Using a one-group pre-test and post-test design, the study evaluated students’ performance in disaster response drills before and after the program. The results showed significant improvements in students’ physical and cognitive preparedness, with post-test mean scores ranging from 4.33 to 4.45, compared to pre-test scores of 2.77 to 3.00, indicating substantial enhancement across all stages of experiential learning. Survey results on the program’s effectiveness showed that students rated the program highly for its clarity, realism, and contribution to their disaster readiness. The findings suggested that the program enhanced students’ physical readiness, decision-making, teamwork, and overall disaster response capabilities. Based on these results, it is recommended that the program be further integrated into the curriculum to strengthen disaster preparedness across academic institutions.

In recent years various disasters with enormous consequences occurred frequently around the world. Emergency Logistics, a new field of logistics which plays a key role in disaster relief and aftermath recovery, has got much attention and become a new efficient methodology in dealing with disastrous consequences. This paper illustrates the theory, practice development, specific characteristics and concept of Emergency Logistics. For emergency logistics management, the most important part is the establishment of emergency logistics system. Enlightened by the present theory and results, an Operations Reference Model for Emergency Logistics System is proposed, in which the support mechanism, compositional elements and functionalities of Emergency Logistics System are discussed in this essay. It is necessary that it has potential value for further study or practical use of Emergency Logistics Management.

Logistics distribution vehicle planning is an important issue in logistics transportation activities, and it is also a research hotspot in theoretical circles at home and abroad. At present, many studies have focused on establishing vehicle planning models and optimizing vehicle planning in different environments and have achieved rich results. As an important part of transportation production process, the efficiency of logistics distribution is very important to the whole production process. Especially for emergency logistics, every minute is very critical for emergency situations such as disaster relief. In order to improve the efficiency of emergency logistics, this paper applies multiagent technology to emergency logistics and puts forward an integrated modeling method of enterprise macromodeling, business process mesomodeling, and micromodel design. Using the agent-oriented system development method, an emergency logistics distribution vehicle planning model system is established. The development process of multiagent automatic trading system is described. The results show that it is feasible and effective to use multi-intelligent fuselage technology for emergency logistics distribution vehicle planning and decision-making. The algorithm proposed in this paper has advantages over the container order sequence processing scheme, and the total cost of order acceptance decreases sharply in the initial stage, which shows the practical convergence of the algorithm. The adjacency search method and Tabu search method deal with the calculation of total labor cost, and the Tabu neighborhood search algorithm obtains better results with lower labor cost.

Multi-objective location-allocation optimization of temporary delivery points for medical supplies during large-scale epidemic outbreaks

Recently, the magnitude and frequency of the natural disaster have been increased, the damage has become severer. The importance of disaster response system to relieve the damage has arised continuously. This study has tried to develop the algorithm to solve the facility location and size problem in emergency logistics. A facility in the emergency logistics has various roles in victim care, casualty treatment, relief resource management and relief vehicle assistance. Moreover, the location of facility in emergency logistics has to consider the safety and reliability. To gather these information, information management system with IoT sensors are suggested. The location problem in this study also covers various features to response various demands in disaster. To solve this problem, this study suggested MIP based algorithm. Scenario based simulation experiments are conducted to verify the performance suggested algorithm.

Emergency logistics refers to the transportation, storage, and distribution of materials to ensure the safety of people’s lives and property and social stability in an emergency or disaster. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the state and society have paid more attention to constructing emergency logistics systems. In recent years, the research on route optimization and location selection of emergency logistics has also increased. The study of emergency logistics location and routing is significant for improving emergency logistics efficiency, optimizing resource allocation, improving emergency response capabilities, and reducing emergency risks. It can provide scientific decision-making support for emergency management departments and logistics enterprises, promote social emergency management level improvement, and ensure the safety of people’s lives and property. This article studies relevant literature on domestic and international emergency logistics routing and location issues in recent years, summarizes the main models and related algorithms to solve this problem, analyzes the current research status in recent years, and looks forward to future research directions.

In recent years, sudden events such as public health events have occurred frequently, which has seriously hindered China's economic development. Reasonable scheduling of emergency supplies can effectively reduce the harm caused by emergencies, and it is of great significance to ensure the production and life of people in disaster areas. In order to ensure that emergency materials can be quickly and efficiently distributed to the affected areas after major emergencies, the vehicle scheduling optimization problem in emergency logistics is studied, that is, to quickly screen the best driving route in a complex road network system to deliver emergency materials to the demand location in the shortest time. In this paper, a model with hard time window is established for emergency logistics vehicle routing optimization problem, and the improved saving algorithm in the shortest path algorithm is selected to solve the emergency material dispatching example in Wuhan area. The experimental results show that the algorithm in this paper has a good effect in solving the problem of emergency supplies scheduling. The algorithm has a good application prospect in reducing the cost of emergency supplies scheduling, shortening the travel time of emergency logistics vehicles and improving the satisfaction of emergency supplies demand points.

Stochastic network models for logistics planning in disaster relief

As healthcare professionals, nursing educators need to be prepared to manage and deliver care in what are often dangerous conditions. This research aims to determine and compare nursing educators' perceptions of disaster preparedness and response (DP&R) in Istanbul and Miyazaki. An 18 question descriptive questionnaire was used. One hundred and forty-four nursing educators representing two state university nursing schools in Istanbul, Turkey, and one state and two private universities in Miyazaki, Japan were enrolled. Educators had an average age of 40 years and had been educators for 1-15 years. Just over half of the participants had basic knowledge regarding DP&R with most of them considering taking special courses in the future. The majority considered "caregiver" as a role they could undertake in a disaster situation. The existence of major concerns and conflicts in disaster responses were low. The top ranked item was in the area of conflict between family and job responsibilities. Age and academic levels showed significant differences in basic knowledge on DP&R. Regardless of knowledge in this subject area, no statistical significance on personal preparedness or being a volunteer to disaster events was found. Nursing educators were not thinking about what kinds of disasters occur in the areas where they currently teach and were underprepared to deal with disaster situations. To improve the perceptions of the nursing educators on DP&R, mass casualty care and disaster management skills need to be incorporated into formal education and training on disaster preparedness and workplace preparedness.

Psychological First Aid (PFA) is becoming a universally accepted intervention in providing psychosocial support to individuals and families affected by trauma or disaster. Our study aimed to measure the effectiveness of a didactic and simulation based Psychological First Aid (PFA) training program in Alberta, Canada. Social work students, practitioners, and human service professionals from Calgary, Edmonton, and Lethbridge were invited to attend the training. A total of 90 participants attended the training at three different sites. A pre and post survey questionnaire was administered to all the participants before and after the training. Findings showed that the training has significantly improved participants’ PFA knowledge and perceived competence in PFA skill. PFA training enhanced their confidence, disaster preparedness, and self-care strategies needed to provide psychosocial support to individuals and families in disaster situations. Our study provides preliminary evidence supporting the effectiveness of the PFA training program among social work students, practitioners and human service professionals for future disaster preparedness in Alberta, Canada.Keywords: Psychological first aid, social work, disaster preparedness, training, competency, effectiveness, Canada

Purpose Despite the increasing number of literature that identifies the roles of various rehabilitation professionals in disaster-related work, there is still limited evidence that examines how these professionals prepare for and function in the various phases of disasters. This study describes the roles and responsibilities practiced by Filipino occupational therapists in disaster preparedness, response, and recovery. The study also describes the preparations undertaken for the therapists to assume these roles. Materials and methods A survey was conducted among licensed occupational therapists with prior experiences in disaster response. The survey consisted of 23 items - seven were related to preparedness, ten to disaster response, and six to the recovery phase. The participants were asked to indicate their degree of involvement in specific roles and responsibilities using a 5-point Likert scale. The questionnaire also explored their personal preparation for disaster-related work. Results The participants were mostly engaged in roles related to the recovery phase, followed by the response phase, and were least engaged in the preparedness phase. The roles most frequently performed include: encourage connectedness and social interactions among survivors (recovery); provide supportive mental health services to survivors and their families (response); and attend trainings in disaster response to be part of a response team (preparedness). The majority of the participants received training in mental health responses and orientation prior to deployment. They identified the need to gain additional knowledge on emergency response and the effects of human displacement in disaster situations. Conclusions Given additional training and orientation, occupational therapists are able to perform various roles and responsibilities in the different phases of disasters. They can serve as additional resources for government and non-government organizations to address the needs of vulnerable populations in disasters. The study results could inform professional organizations on how rehabilitation professionals could be further trained to address disaster-related concerns. IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATION With additional orientation and training, occupational therapists could serve as an important health human resource especially in providing mental health services to people with special needs in disasters. There is a need to intentionally integrate disaster preparedness in the scope of practice of rehabilitation professionals to prepare people with special needs for disasters. Additional knowledge and skills in humanitarian action need to be integrated with clinical expertise to benefit government and non-government disaster management activities.

There exist certain behaviors that people tend to do in disaster situations before evacuation. Such behaviors include warning confirmation behavior (for example, seeking information) and family-oriented behavior (for example, contacting one’s family). Identifying factors that affect these behaviors is of particular importance in building a better understanding of why people often fail to respond quickly to evacuation orders. For this purpose, the present study employed some of the established factors affecting evacuation behavior as predictor variables along with the timing of an evacuation order. A total of 518 participants took part in a 12-item online questionnaire survey that contained a hypothetical disaster scenario. The results of ordinal logistic regression analyses revealed that only risk area residence and disaster preparedness were associated with warning confirmation behavior, while gender, age, disaster preparedness, and risk perception had some associations with family-oriented behavior. Also, the participants were not more likely to engage in these behaviors in the morning and the afternoon than the evening in the hypothetical scenario. These findings imply the possibility that people engage in warning confirmation behavior and family-oriented behavior before evacuation regardless of individual characteristics and the circumstances surrounding them.

Exploring Blockchain for Disaster Prevention and Relief: A Comprehensive Framework Based on Industry Case Studies

Lessons learned from deploying crowdsourced technology for disaster relief during Kerala floods

The aim of this study is to introduce a new temporary emergency stations distribution for emergency medical services (EMSs) simultaneously in order to find the optimal ambulance routing in a disaster response. Planning and preparedness are a set of activities in pre-disaster situations. When a disaster may not occur for a long time in a specific city, we cannot predict the time of its occurrence. However, in disaster situations, an EMS is faced with a large number of injured people, most of them with critical injuries, in which normal facilities and planning cannot respond. Last disasters teach us that we should be ready to respond correctly to decrease morbidity and mortality. This study seeks a better plan for patients in a post-disaster by categorizing them into very high emergency and normal patients. The main aim of the presented model is to find the best ambulance routing by minimizing the total response time, meanwhile finding the optimal number of a temporary emergency station and the best location setup by taking costs into consideration. The model is exactly solved by the e-constraint method. Then, we can propose the optimal planning for the decision makers.