Optimal Allocation of City Districts to Emergency Resettlement Sites, Hospitals, and Clinics after the Earthquake (Case Study: Bojnord City)

The occurrence of natural disasters, such as earthquakes, is sometimes associated with many financial and personal injuries. Proper allocation of each city district to emergency resettlement sites, hospitals and clinics will accelerate the relief process and reduces injuries. The purpose of this research is to present an integer linear mathematical programming model for optimal locating and allocating of emergency resettlement points to city districts.

In this research, the volume of flow between the demand points and emergency resettlement sites, clinics, and hospitals is determined. The objective function of the presented mathematical model is to minimize the mathematical expectation the of total transfer time of people, so that the coefficient of fines is considered for the later transmission of the affected persons to the treatment centers. Due to the accidental nature of natural disasters, uncertainty in this study is seen as a scenario. In this study, the probability of occurrence of different scenarios, the probability of injury in each area in different scenarios, the classification of injured persons, and the limited reception capacity at resettlement and treatment centers are considered.

The proposed research model was coded and solved using Bojnord city information. The optimal allocation of each district of Bojnord to temporary hospitals, clinics and resettlement sites has been determined.

Although the probability of injury was considered small in different city districts, the hospitals did not have the capacity to repost to the injured persons and it is necessary to use the adjacent city hospital for hospitalization. Locating temporary treatment centers is also needed in areas close to the villages before such events occur.