A Sustainable Humanitarian Relief Network Study for the Wenchuan Earthquake

Abstract

Achieving sustainable societies is a common goal for governments, companies and societies around the world. This new approach has been implemented with success on supply chain sciences where knowledge, methods and tools are being developed to support the establishment of supply chains that meet the requirements of the social, economic and environmental dimensions of sustainability. Nevertheless, most of the efforts on Sustainable Supply Chain Management concentrate on commercial logistics. This work looks forward to sensitize on the need to make humanitarian networks responsible, and therefore sustainable, as well. With an exemplary study, it is analyzed a sustainable humanitarian relief network for the Wenchuan Earthquake.

Appendix

Definition of parameters

Input	Parameters
$x_{ilrt}$	Amount of item r from the donor point i to transfer point l at time t
$y_{ljrt}$	Amount of item r transport from l to delivery point j at time t
$p_{ir}$	Procurement cost of relief item r at donor city i
$c_{il}$	Unit transportation cost from donor point i to delivery point l
$c_{lj}$	Unit transportation cost from donor point l to delivery point j
$F_{ilv}$	Fixed cost of allocating transportation vehicle v from donor point i to delivery point l
$F_{ljv}$	Fixed cost of allocating transportation vehicle v from delivery point l to relief point j
$n_{ilvt}$	Number of vehicles v required between donor point i and transfer point l at time t
$n_{ljvt}$	Number of vehicles v required between transfer point l and relief point j at time t
$k_{r}$	Unit transport cost of item r per hour
$t_{il}$	Travel time from donor point i to transfer point j
$g_{lj}$	Travel time from transfer point i to demand point j
$f_{v}$	Units fix cost of vehicle v per minute
$q_{irt}$	Supply quantity of item r available at donor city i at time t
$d_{jr}$	Demand for item r at delivery point j
$N_{ivt}$	Total number of available transportation vehicle v in donor city i at time t
$\varpi_{r}$	Package volume of each relief item r
$\varepsilon_{r}$	Package weight of each relief item r
$C_{v}$	Transportation capacity of vehicle v
$L_{v}$	Transportation load of vehicle v
$T_{il}(t)$	Travel time from the donor point i to transfer point l
$T_{il}(t)$	Travel time from the transfer point l to delivery point j
$\theta_{jr}$	Credibility level about the satisfaction of the demand for item r at point of delivery j
$\mu_{{d_{jr} }} (t)$	Membership function for the credibility of the delivery of item between $t_{jr}^{0} ,t_{jr}^{1}$ the necessity of the item falls down and after $t_{jr}^{1}$, equal to zero
$a_{ljrt}$	∈ Z arrival time of item r to delivery point j leaving transfer point l in time t
$z_{ljrt}$	∈{0,1} = 1 if item r with destination j arrives transfer point l in time t
EC	Energy consumptions
PL	Actual truck load in tons (t)
PL max	Maximum payload capacity in tons (t)