Research directions on decision support in disaster relief logistics

Disaster situations lead to a high number of critical and complex decisions regarding disaster relief logistics, which need to be made under dynamic and often unknown circumstances. As this puts decision-makers under high pressure, there is a great need for high-quality decision support. Due to the specific characteristics of disaster relief logistics, standard decision support systems are not capable of depicting the needed complexity. Therefore, research has started to develop approaches specifically tailored to these situations. This paper uses a structured literature review to provide an overview on the so far gained knowledge and to reveal implications for future research. The results show that most of the work in this field focuses on individual, isolated problems and applies optimization techniques to solve them. Nonetheless, the question on whether this is the most suitable way to support decision-makers has been raised. It is therefore proposed to put a focus on integrated decision problems as well as on simulation as an alternative to optimization techniques in research regarding decision support in disaster relief logistics.