REMESH · Research Network on Emergency Resources Supply Chain

The ability of national and international agencies to cope effectively with large-scale natural disasters is becoming more and more important. The United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA, 2016) reports an increase in the frequency and impact of large-scale natural disasters in both the developed and developing world. Recent extreme events such as Storm Jonas (2016, USA), the earthquake and tsunami in Tōhoku (2011) and New Zealand (2016) have demonstrated the need for a rapid and effective external response to complex events, and the impact on the human population when this is delayed or inadequate. The Emergency Resources Supply Chain (ERSC) has a crucial role in promoting the effective application of disaster management, and differs from conventional supply chains in several ways. The unique characteristics of ERSC include: a) having to analyse all the demands in a very short period of time, using limited resources. b) having to be designed, constructed and maintained in order to support continuous and smooth materials and information flows, and c) having to include a set of diverse plans, resources, authorities, agencies, and their associated human resources. A recent review has emphasized the relative scarcity of the literature on these topics, and research on ERSC vulnerability/ resilience is particularly underdeveloped. This project will develop a decision support framework to capture and minimize the vulnerability of ERSC in large-scale natural disasters, and increase resilience when impacted by adverse circumstances. This joint collaboration will a) explore and understand the nature of ERSC vulnerability and the root causes of failures, and b) develop and enhance a framework for identifying the vulnerable components and evaluating the performance. The research results will facilitate the analysis of the relationship between ERSC vulnerability and capacity, and therefore increase resilience to adverse circumstance.