A simulation approach for collaborative humanitarian aid distribution management: the case of Bogotá city

Collaboration mechanisms in humanitarian supply chains increase efficiency levels in post-disaster relief operations. The scientific literature on the topic is mostly based on qualitative approaches to identify the barriers and benefits of collaborative relationships between stakeholders. Thus, this paper proposes the use of system dynamics simulation to evaluate the impact on the average response time of aid delivery resulting from implementing different collaborative strategies. In this sense, collaborative strategies are designed for humanitarian operations in the immediate response phase considering elements such as information exchange, shared resources, and infrastructure. To design and assess the impact of these collaborative strategies in a disaster scenario, we analyze the case of the city of Bogotá-Colombia and the surrounding cities, we have used public information for building and tuning the parameters of the simulation model. The simulation model results allow us to identify the main factors that reduce the average response times to serve the affected population. It can be concluded that the strategy which includes sharing resources and infrastructure, exchanging information, and the creation of joint knowledge has a greater improvement in response times becoming the best policy for disaster management given the results obtained in a collaborative planning environment.