Dynamic Resource Allocation Problem for Transportation Network Evacuation

Allocating movable response resources dynamically enables evacuation management agencies to improve evacuation system performance in both the spatial and temporal dimensions. This study proposes a mixed integer linear program (MILP) model to address the dynamic resource allocation problem for transportation evacuation planning and operations. To enable realism in practice, the proposed model includes spatiotemporal constraints related to the time required to reallocate resources to another location, the minimum time allocated resources should be at a location, and the minimum time gap between successive allocations of resources to a location. The proposed model is transformed into a two-stage optimization program for which a greedy-type heuristic algorithm is developed to solve the MILP approximately but efficiently. Results from computational experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed model and the efficiency of the heuristic solution algorithm. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014