Investing in disaster management capabilities versus pre-positioning inventory: A new approach to disaster preparedness

نویسندگان

  • Nathan Kunz
  • Gerald Reiner
  • Stefan Gold
چکیده

Disaster preparedness has been recognized as a central element in reducing the impact of disasters worldwide. The usual methods of preparedness, such as pre-positioning relief inventory in countries prone to disasters, are problematic because they require high investment in various locations, due to the uncertainty about the timing and location of the next disaster. Investing in disaster management capabilities, such as training staff, pre-negotiating customs agreements with countries prone to disasters, or harmonizing import procedures with local customs clearance procedures, has been recognized as a way to overcome this constraint. By means of system dynamics modeling, we model the delivery process of ready-to-use therapeutic food items during the immediate response phase of a disaster, and we analyze the performance of different preparedness scenarios. We find that pre-positioning inventory produces positive results for the beneficiaries, but at extremely high costs. Investing in disaster management capabilities is an interesting alternative, as it allows lead time reductions of up to 67% (18 days) compared to a scenario without preparedness, at significantly lower costs than pre-positioning inventory. We find that the best performance can be achieved when combining both preparedness strategies, allocating part of the available funding to disaster management capabilities and part to prepositioning inventory. We analyze 2828 such combined scenarios to identify the best mix of preparedness strategies for different levels of available funding. On the basis of our findings, we provide recommendations for relief organizations on how to allocate their preparedness budget. & 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید

ثبت نام

اگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید

منابع مشابه

Re-configuration of the Relief Network Considering Uncertain Demand and Link Failure in an Earthquake: A Multi-stage Stochastic Programming

Disasters inevitably trigger far-reaching consequences affecting all living things and the environment.  Therefore, top managers and decision-makers in disaster management seek comprehensive approaches to evaluate facilities and network preparedness in dealing with the response phase of predicted disaster scenarios in terms of number of casualties, costs, and unmet demands.  In this regard, pre...

متن کامل

Effect of Hospital Incident Command System Establishment on the Preparedness Level of Disaster Committee and Nursing Staff of Imam Ali Hospital, Zarand, Iran, 2010

Background: The current study aimed at examining Hospital Incident Command System (HICS) on the rate of accidents and disaster preparedness committee and nursing staff of Imam Ali Hospital in Zarand, Iran. Materials and Methods: The current semi-experimental study was conducted on the members of Crisis Committee (n=9) and nursing personnel (n=38) selected by fully count model. Data collection ...

متن کامل

Emergency and Disaster Preparedness in Nurses: A Concept Analysis

Introduction: Given the growing rate of accidents and disasters in the world, preparing nurses as the main group responding to these events is crucial; however, a review of literature suggests no comprehensive and theoretical or practical definitions for this concept in nursing, which has been often misunderstood and used as an alternative to other similar concepts. Objective: The presen...

متن کامل

Pre-positioning and dynamic operations planning in pre- and post-disaster phases with lateral transhipment under uncertainty and disruption

Humanitarian organizations pre-position relief items in pre-disaster and distribute them to the affected areas in post-disaster. Improper planning of emergency operations causes more deaths in post-disaster. In this paper, the problem of relief item pre-positioning and multi-period distribution planning is addressed considering lateral transhipment among distribution centres to improve the effi...

متن کامل

Identification and Prioritization of the Factors Affecting the Disaster Preparedness of Schools in Mashhad, Iran

INTRODUCTION: Iran has always been prone to natural disasters, such as hurricanes and earthquakes, which are followed by heavy financial and bodily harms. In this regard, it is crucial to have disaster management in the schools of Iran to protect the significant number of young people studying in schools. Therefore, school principals must be constantly prepared for disasters and develop disaste...

متن کامل

ذخیره در منابع من


  با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید

برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید

ثبت نام

اگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید

عنوان ژورنال:

دوره   شماره 

صفحات  -

تاریخ انتشار 2015