Location-Allocation of Relief Service Facilities: A Case Study for Bogotá - Colombia

Effective resource allocation during natural disasters and response strategies are crucial to mitigate impacts and save lives. This paper presents a comprehensive mathematical model, which is designed to optimize disaster response operations. The proposed model integrates various components, including the demand for different types of relief services, facilities distributed by zones, as well as the assessment of resource requirements, and optimization of the location capacities per zone. We propose the use of mixed-integer linear programming (MILP), where we propose three different objective functions. The model was tested over a real case in Bogotá-Colombia and we evaluate different scenarios to analyze the performance of the model and obtained results. The proposed framework offers a strategic tool for policymakers and emergency managers to enable data-driven decision-making in disaster preparedness and response planning.