The International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC), is one of the many humanitarian organizations that are further developing their logistics network more decentralized structures with sub-regional networks. One of the main challenges identified is the need of monitoring tools to have a real-time overview of the whole logistics network state, and optimization of the associate...

Against the backdrop of over two hundred thousand people dead or missing and millions of people homeless after China’s massive earthquake and Myanmar devastating cyclone, forecasts estimate that natural and manmade disasters are likely to increase five-fold both in number and impact over the next 50 years. Hence, the need for disaster relief provided by humanitarian organizations during disaste...

Large scale Humanitarian Assistance/Disaster Relief (HA/DR) operations often require the intervention and aid of various agencies from all over the world. As a result, HA/DR operations involve many negotiation and coordination issues. Although a number of studies have emphasized computer assistance for negotiations, it remains unclear how such information and communication technology could be e...

Aharon Ben-Tal Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management, MINERVA Optimization Center, Technion Israel Institute of Technology Technion City, Haifa 32000, Israel, [email protected] Byung Do Chung, Supreet Reddy Mandala, Tao Yao The Harold & Inge Marcus Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802 {[email protected],...

This article proposes a multi-agent simulation model to examine how different operational environments and incentive mechanisms affect the collective performance of complex humanitarian response systems. Using the UN Humanitarian Response Depot (UNHRD) system as an example, a stylized model of one service provider, two member organizations and multiple humanitarian crises is developed to illust...

• Signs are emerging that the PLA is becoming more confident about its position vis-à-vis Taiwan. At the same time, China believes that a changing international environment requires the Chinese armed forces to have more diversified capabilities. It is therefore placing relatively more emphasis on developing operational capabilities for missions other than against Taiwan (e.g., humanitarian assi...

In today's emergency management environments geoinformation technologies play a vital role, but their potential has not been fully exploited. Key decision makers usually do not have direct access to Geographic Information Systems and if they receive access, complex user interfaces often hinder performance for high pressure tasks. In order to provide decision makers with direct and easy access t...