Date of Award

2011

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Systems Engineering

First Advisor

Davis, Lauren Dr.

Abstract

As the intensity of natural disasters increases, there is a need to develop policies and procedures to assist various humanitarian relief groups, industry or government agencies with moving aid to affected areas. One of the biggest hindrances to this process is damage to transportation networks, in particular, waterways. To keep waterways safe, aids to navigation (ATONs) are placed in various areas to guide mariners and ships to their final destinations. If the ATONs are damaged, then the waterways are left unsafe and it is difficult to move supplies to repair them and recover from a disaster. A stochastic facility location model is presented to understand the advantage of prepositioning repair supplies in order to maximize the repair of ATONs. The first stage decisions focus on location determination of resources that are prepositioned. The second stage decisions consist of the distribution of supplies and teams to affected areas. The results will show the benefits of a prepositioning policy toward the responsiveness of restoring waterway.

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