Chapter 2

Humanitarian Logistics

Melih Çelik, Özlem Ergun, Ben Johnson, Pinar Keskinocak, Álvaro Lorca, Pelin Pekgün, Julie Swann
H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332

{fmelihcelik@gatech.edu, oergun@isye.gatech.edu, benjohnson@gatech.edu, pinar@isye.gatech.edu, alvarolorca@gatech.edu, pelin@isye.gatech.edu, jswann@isye.gatech.edug}

Abstract

The increase in natural and man-made disasters in the recent years has highlighted challenging problems in humanitarian operations, in addition to major long-term humanitarian development challenges. Humanitarian logistics plays an important role in preparing for, responding to, and recovering from sudden-onset disasters and addressing long-term development issues. The management of humanitarian logistics operations involves many challenges such as conflicting objectives from multiple stakeholders, coordination and collaboration, high uncertainty, and scarcity of resources. In this tutorial, we provide an introduction to humanitarian logistics and its main application areas while outlining current research trends and the major challenges faced in the area today. We also present four decision aid tools addressing typical applications of humanitarian logistics: network design for donated human breast milk delivery in South Africa, port simulation and shipment scheduling for a large international agency, demand estimation and emergency procurement for CARE, and postdisaster medical response under accessibility issues. In presenting these decision aid tools, we aim to underline the differences in issues arising from sudden-onset disasters and long-term development problems, various stages of the life cycle of disasters, and different decision levels, while also pointing to general aspects in modeling humanitarian logistics problems.

Key words: humanitarian logistics; disaster management; long-term development; equity; nonprofit operations; relief distribution

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Citation information:

Çelik, M., Ö. Ergun, B. Johnson, P. Keskinocak, Á. Lorca, P. Pekgün, J. Swann. Humanitarian Logistics. P. Mirchandani, ed. INFORMS TutORials in Operations Research, Vol. 9. INFORMS, Hanover, MD, pp. 18--49