Vehicle Routing Optimisation in Humanitarian Operations: A Survey on Modelling and Optimisation Approaches

Abstract

The growing field of humanitarian operations is driven by frequent events of disasters seen in the world today. Within this field, Operations Research (OR) plays a critical role in alleviating the suffering of victims that are impacted by disasters. This paper focuses on the branch of a well-known OR problem, known as the Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP), within the selected scope of humanitarian operations. A total of 123 papers of the last decade are reviewed and classified under the humanitarian operations of supply and delivery, evacuation as well as rescue operations. Besides specific disaster management phases and disaster types, various modelling challenges are highlighted, hinting towards a richer and more complex VRP seen under selected model characteristic classifications. Furthermore, established solution approaches, including hybrid solutions, are highlighted and classified, discussing how they are applied in the context of these humanitarian operations. The inclusion of a machine learning solution approach under the same classification is proposed. Finally, the trend and future outlook of VRP for the suggested humanitarian operations are discussed and highlighted.

Afet Sonrası Geçici Depo Yeri Seçimi ve Çok Araçlı Araç Rotalama Uygulaması: Kırıkkale İlinde Bir Uygulama

“…Anuar vd. [27], çalışmalarında afetten etkilenen insanlara yardım edebilmek amacıyla araç rotalama problemine odaklanılmıştır. Kokaji ve Kainuma [28], çalışmalarında afet sonrası yardım malzemelerinin eşit ve adil dağıtımının sağlanması için matematiksel model oluşturulmuştur.…”

A Multi-Depot Vehicle Routing Problem with Stochastic Road Capacity and Reduced Two-Stage Stochastic Integer Linear Programming Models for Rollout Algorithm

“…Different combinations and variations of these problem characteristics are especially addressed by the humanitarian operations applications. The review paper [11] had shown that those addressing split delivery VRP would also typically incorporate a multi-trip operation as a means to address the vehicle limitation problem during such a chaotic time. This could also be seen in [12][13][14][15][16].…”

“…As for works that addressed both multi-depot and multi-trip operations, this is seen in [19]. For a more in-depth, rich VRP that incorporates multi-depot, split delivery, multi-trip and road capacity for the application of humanitarian operations, refer to the work in [11].…”

“…For this problem, customers are separated into two groups depending on which is more suitable for a split delivery, which leads to an optimised route. In the humanitarian settings, more standalone problem characteristics of VRP in terms of split delivery, multi-trip and multi-depot can be observed in [11].…”

“…In humanitarian operation settings, the characteristics of the road are a crucial factor albeit rarely addressed. As mentioned in [11] the flow model could be the best approach when incorporating road conditions such as road flow, road capacity and road impedance in a VRP. Such work can be seen in [31][32][33][34][35].…”