Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 24
Location Problems Under Disaster Events
Maria Paola Scaparra and Richard L. Church
Abstract
Facility systems may be vulnerable to a disaster, whether caused by
intention, an accident, or by an act of nature. When disrupting events do occur,
services may be degraded or even destroyed. This chapter addresses problems of
disruption associated with facility based service systems. Three main questions
often arise when dealing with a possible disaster: (1) how bad can it get? (2) is
there a way in which we can protect our system from such an outcome? and (3) is
there a way in which we can incorporate such issues in our future designs and plans?
This chapter addresses each of these main questions with respect to several classic
location problems. Specifically, it discusses recent location models under disaster
events along three main streams of research: facility interdiction, facility protection,
and resilient design.
Keywords
Interdiction Protection Reliability
24.1
Introduction
Although Murphys law (if anything can go wrong, it will) does not always come
true, it seems at least important to address what might go wrong when designing
and operating infrastructures, such as service systems and supply chains. Whether
intentional or accidental, disasters can render a system inoperable or inefficient for
quite some time. For example, in 2011, flooding in Thailand was considered to be
the worst in 50 years. This event disrupted supply chains around the world from
computer storage disk manufacturing to cars. In that flood, a production facility for
Honda was closed for more than 3 months, and a financial analyst estimated that
floods would reduce profits at Toyota, Nissan, and Honda by more than a combined
Y35bn (Soble
2011
). Harm can also be intentional and simple. For example, a
