Preparedness for earthquake disaster: Optimal deployment of emergency treatment

The official framework of the earthquake preparation policy in Israel presumes that care for all casualties is the main concern and as so defined the necessity of deploying Emergency Treatment Sites (ETS) as part of disaster logistics. These treatment sites will provide medical first aid during the first 72 hours to moderate and lightly injured casualties. While authorities define only one kind of ETS, equipped and positioned in advance, defined here as static ETS, our optimization model suggests adding new mobile ETS that participate under command of the static ETS. These mobile ETS will be equipped and positioned only after an event occurs. The model is based on minimizing distance on network hierarchical location problems with “soft” constraints, where a set of destruction locations, including casualties and sets of candidate static and mobile ETS are given. The destruction sites and number of casualties are based on Hazus software prediction for a specific area and damage scenario, while the candidate ETS locations are suggested according to emergency safety instructions. The research scenario assumes that a mobile ETS will be connected only to one destruction site and one static ETS within defined maximal distance. A static ETS can serve several sites. The model we developed will provide the best recommended locations for both static and mobile ETS, that can handle the maximum casualties at minimum duration under given restrictions. Those planned facilities can help minimize uncertainty of policy makers at disaster logistics during the first hours, saving more lives.