Disaster management: hierarchical structuring criteria for selection and location of temporary shelters

Abstract

Humanitarian logistics refers to the processes and systems involving the mobilization of people, resources and expertize to help vulnerable communities affected by natural disasters and complex emergencies, reducing the loss of lives and relieving human suffering. With regard to disaster management, one of the most important tasks is decision making. The lack of criteria with respect to the selection and location of temporary shelters, for example, can lead to unforeseen factors, threatening the quality of the logistics operation as a whole. A decision-making process can be aided by several models such as multi-criteria models, which address problems whose objectives require a global and comprehensive view of the situation. Among the possible perspectives of analysis, there is the identification of criteria that are relevant to decision making. In that sense, this paper presents the criteria and important aspects that should be addressed by a multi-criteria model for risk management, specifically in regard to moving and temporary sheltering the population affected by a disaster. Qualitative and quantitative aspects were identified, summing up to ten criteria. These criteria and their sub-criteria were hierarchically structured.