The two-echelon island fuel distribution problem

Abstract

After a natural disaster on an island, fuel demand often increases significantly, making it one of the highest priority relief items. FEMA has proposed a plan to use ships to transport fuel for delivery to dispensing sites. Even if the location of the fuel dispensing sites is determined by the location of population centers, there remain questions about how many ships to use, which ports should be visited by the ships, and what points of origin to use for these ships to minimize the maximum time a citizen must wait for access to fuel. We model this new problem with a two-echelon fuel distribution network, show how to make it computationally tractable, and provide a case study for Puerto Rico that reveals important insights.