AN INTEGRATED MULTI-MODEL OPTIMIZATION AND FUZZY AHP FOR SHELTER SITE SELECTION AND EVACUATION PLANNING

Due to an increasing severity of recent disasters, shelter site selection and evacuation planning have become an essential function for the purpose of helping at-risk persons to avoid or recover from the effect of a disaster. Therefore, this study aims to propose an integrated mathematical optimization and fuzzy analytic hierarchy process for shelter site selection and evacuation planning. The mathematical models are formulated under different constraints and model types, in which the objective of each mathematical model is to minimize the total travel distance. The mathematical models are coded and run in optimizer tool for creating plans. Then, Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process is applied to choose the appropriate plan under uncertainty and vagueness of the expert's opinion. A numerical example with a real case study of a Banta municipality in Thailand is given to demonstrate the application of our conceptual model. This study will be great significance in helping decision makers consider placement of emergency shelters and evacuation planning with respect to both qualitative and quantitative measurement. Moreover, our study can be a guide of the methodology to be implemented to other problems as well.