A hybrid algorithm Tabu Search – GRASP for wounded evacuation in disaster response

Abstract

Natural and triggered-disasters, have devastating and profound negative effects on human lives that require a speedy declaration of an emergency in order to minimize their severe consequences. Hence, a prompt disaster response, in addition to effective measures such as informed decision making, organized evacuation plan, right hospital selection, proper rescue vehicles, efficient resources assignment and timely vehicle scheduling are critical actions needed to organize successful secured operations that could, if well prepared, save many injured bodies and lessen the human distress. To reach this ultimate goal, a complicated procedure should be in place and any failure can potentially increase the number of causalities, thus a complete alertness and full caution should be exercised. In this paper, we treat the Integrated Problem of Ambulance Scheduling and Resource Assignment (IPASRA) in the case of a sudden disaster. The main resources to be assigned are the ambulances and the hospitals. While, the hospitals serving capacities might be considered or not according to the extent of disaster and particularly to the wounded bodies’ total number. We formulate the (IPASRA) as a linear model, furthermore a novel hybrid algorithm based on Tabu Search (TS) and Greedy Randomized Adaptive Search Procedure (GRASP) is offered to tackle this complex problem. Simulation tests are also presented to prove the efficiency of our modelling and resolution approaches.