Reliable location of first responder stations for cooperative response to disasters

Strategic positioning and allocation of emergency responders and/or resources to potential emergency incidents are very important decisions for disaster management programs. In this paper, a reliable multi-type joint-service facility location model is proposed, which takes into consideration the need for cooperative service from multiple types of responder stations, as well as the probabilistic risk of station disruptions. The problem is formulated as a mixed-integer non-linear program and solved via a set of customized linear program and Lagrangian relaxation based algorithms. Numerical experiments on hypothetical and full-scale cases are conducted to demonstrate the applicability of the model and to draw managerial insights.