Abstract

LAMOS DIAZ, Henry; AGUILAR IMITOLA, Karin  and  ACOSTA AMADO, Rolando José. OR/MS research perspectives in disaster operations management: a literature review. Rev.fac.ing.univ. Antioquia [online]. 2019, n.91, pp.43-59. ISSN 0120-6230.  https://doi.org/10.17533/udea.redin.n91a05.

The unpredictability of natural disasters makes handling their impacts on the population, the environment and the economic resources a challenging decision-making process that must be wisely performed in a very short period of time. An adequate management of operations to disaster response is challenging for decision makers and it has become a topic of significant relevance on a worldwide basis. As a result, academics and practitioners in the field of OR/MS have increased their interest in developing tools to support the decision-making processes on a disaster scenario. This paper surveys the OR/MS literature to identify new trends of increasing interest in disaster operations management (DOM) that have emerged in the last years. A discussion on the gaps that have been successfully addressed in the last years and those that remain opened is also presented. Among the main findings, the recent use of methodologies based on data analysis, such as machine learning and data mining, to address DOM problems was identified. Moreover, a significant increase in the study of operations in the recovery phase and the inclusion of humanitarian objectives in mathematical models was established.

Keywords : Disaster; emergency management; humanitarian logistics; operations research.

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