Integrated multi-item packaging and vehicle routing with split delivery problem for fresh agri-product emergency supply at large-scale epidemic disease context

Fresh agri-product emergency supply is crucial to secure the basic livelihood of residents at large-scale epidemic disease context. Considering the massive demand and limited transportation resources, this study integrates multi-item packaging and vehicle routing with split delivery to improve the emergency supply capacity. Firstly, three specific objectives of fresh agri-product emergency supply at large-scale epidemic disease context are formulated, i.e., average response time, infectious risk possibility and transportation resource utilization. Then, a multi-item packaging strategy is proposed to consolidate different categories of fresh agri-products according to the food cold chain temperatures.An optimization model integrating multi-item packaging and vehicle routing with split delivery is developed to jointly decide the optimal packaging scheduling, vehicle assignment and delivery routing. Next, an improved genetic algorithm based on solution features (IGA-SF) is designed to solve the integrated model with multiple decision variables. Finally,a case on fresh agri-product emergency supply of Huangpi District, Wuhan in the context of the Corona Virus Disease 2019(COVID-19) is carried out to illustrate the efficiency and feasibility of the proposed model. The numerical results of medium-to-largescale cases demonstrate that the proposed IGA-SF could save 23.91% CPU time and 37.80% iteration number on average than genetic algorithm. This study could satisfy different emergency scenario requirements flexibly, and provide scientific decision support for provincial and national governments on fresh agri-product emergency supply.

Emergency Plan for Water Supply in Consecutive Droughts and Sustainable Water Resources Management in Beijing

Beijing, the capital city of China, has suffered from acute water shortage, with only 300 m3/a of water resources available per capita. In addition, Beijing has experienced a prolonged period of consecutive droughts from 1999 to 2010. Water crisis has constrained the socio-economic development of Beijing. Meanwhile, the national "South-to-North Water Transfer"（STNWT） project, which is expected to provide some relief to the water crisis in Beijing, is still under development. In order to ensure the security of water supply in Beijing before the completion of the STNWT project, several measures have been implemented to cope with droughts, including pumping groundwater from emergency well fields,water saving, recycling of water, rain and flood water harvesting, and the diversion of water from neighboring rivers and groundwater basins. Groundwater from four emergency well fields contributes the most to the public and domestic water supplies in Beijing, supplying a total volume of 1.8×10;m;.The water crisis is supposed to be mitigated by the completion of the STNWT project. After the completion of this project, more sustainable management of water resources will be implemented,including the use of aquifers as groundwater reservoirs and conjunctive use of surface water and groundwater resources.

Emergency Supply Control from the Perspectives of Peacetime and Wartime:A System Dynamics Simulation

The supply of emergency materials is the fundament of emergency rescues.In view of the demand for emergency materials in major calamities,in this paper,a system dynamics model of emergency materials is constructed from the perspectives of wartime and peacetime.By setting and controlling the relevant parameters and variables,the influence of a variable on the demand and supply of emergency materials and the influence of government strategies on the quantity and provision of emergency material supply are analyzed.We explore the measures that can better ensure the supply to stabilize the social and economic security of the country.The results show that the emergency degree of an event will lead to increases in the amount of government expenditures and in the duration of such expenditures.Meanwhile,the increase in emergency cases will increase the variation range of the supply and demand deviation curve,lengthen the response time to demand,and fasten the growth trend of material supply.The Chinese government adopts comprehensive regulation and control mode,which make the supply and demand reach the equilibrium state more than twice as fast as other control methods.In addition,the promotion of publicity will improve the number of civil materials.A high inflation rate will lead to high imports of government materials,which will consequently affect the supply of emergency materials.The above research findings have important reference significance for the government’s emergency materials management.

Emergency Material Reserve Location Research in Urban Areas Based on the Supply and Demand Perspective: A Case from China

In order to improve the scientific layout of urban emergency material reserve, first, considering that the road condition has an important impact on the effect of emergency rescue, the concept of road damage risk factor is introduced in this article to build satisfaction attenuation function based on the thought of demand satisfaction decreasing within the coverage radius;second, based on the maximum coverage model, a multi-objective and multi-repeated cover model was established to solve the limited supply capacity of emergency supplies reserve;finally, the model is verified by using Yanqing district in Beijing. The study’s results showed that the improved maximum coverage model can scientifically determine the coverage and quantity of emergency supplies of each emergency material reserve, and improve the efficiency and scientificity of emergency supplies distribution. In order to avoid the disorderly distribution of emergency supplies, it is suggested that the coverage radius and scope of the emergency material reserve should be determined based on the balance between supply and demand.

Water System Management in Emergency Situations

This article deals with the issue of water system management and emergency management of water supply systems based on experience with the operation of water systems in EU （European Union） Member States. The options available for prevention/elimination of the hazard of limited drinking water supply to the public are described. Current climate and, in some countries, also the existing social conditions pose barriers to a smooth water supply to the public. Various hazards endangering the quality and amounts of water produced emerge. Since the risk of water supply outages due to natural or anthropogenic factors cannot be completely eliminated （for instance, hacker attacks pose a new threat to the water companies＇ control systems）, in other words, emergency situations where smooth water supply is disturbed cannot be ruled out, efforts must be made to at least minimise adverse impacts of such events on the users. Organisational and technical conditions minimising such hazards must be set up. A water production and distribution organization and management system must be introduced, which will be able to prevent and address such hazards and emergency situations. How to tackle this complex task in the real water system management conditions and to assure some minimal amount of water at least for strategic consumers is discussed in this article. The results of a water system operation risk analysis are presented, feasible methods to minimize such risks are described, and options to prevent and address such risks are proposed. A water company organisation and management system taking into account the possibility of development of emergency situations is set forth. Focus is on the use of a telemetric system as a system means that facilitates the prevention and possible addressing of any emergencies occurring during the operation of a water supply system.

Current Situation and Development Countermeasures of Local Material Reserves in Liaoning Province

Local material reserves are an important guarantee for responding to emergencies,maintaining normal economic and social order,and protecting the order of people s life.In order to effectively respond to uncontrollable changes such as natural disasters or epidemic crises,the current situation of local reserves in Liaoning Province was analyzed comprehensively at first,and then the effectiveness,shortcomings and causes of local material reserves were discussed.Finally,some development countermeasures and suggestions were proposed to provide strong support for promoting the high-quality development of local reserve projects.

STOCHASTIC COMPARISONS IN A PRICE-QUANTITY SETTING FIRM WITH UNCERTAIN DEMAND AND EMERGENCY PROCUREMENT

We consider a newsvendor problem with price-dependent demand, in either additive or multiplicative format. The newsvendor has two modes of purchasing： regular ordering at the beginning of the selling season and emergency ordering （if the realized demand exceeds the initial order quantity） at the end of the selling season. By stochastic comparisons, we systematically investigate the effects of demand magnitude and demand randomness on pricing and ordering quantity decisions as well as expected profit of the newsvendor, under both usual stochastic order （first order stochastic dominance） and convex order （less variable）. Our key findings include： （i） in contrary to the case where price is exogenous, a stochastically larger demand shock may even lead to a lower order quantity; （ii） a stochastically larger demand shock leads to a higher price for the additive demand case, but may lead to a lower price for the multiplicative demand case; （iii） a stochastically larger demand shock leads to a higher expected profit for both demand models; （iv） in general, a less variable demand leads to a higher expected profit for both demand models; and furthermore, a less variable demand shock has no effect on price for the additive demand model, but leads to a higher price for the multiplicative demand model. The implications of all these findings for pricing and order quantity are discussed in detail.

Multilevel coverage location model of earthquake relief material storage repository considering distribution time sequence characteristics

The scientific location of earthquake emergency supply warehouses is conducive to the effective distribution of emergency relief resources and improved rescue efficiency in earthquake hazard. Comprehensively considering the regional population as well as coverage quality at the demand points, this paper aims to divide the coverage thresholds of earthquake emergency rescue and logistic supplies according to their time-series features,and to build a location model for supply warehouses according to the variety and amount of stored supplies considering their time-series features, in hope of optimizing the set covering issue of earthquake relief supply warehouses. The solution is approached with two methods: the target deviation rate minimization model and NSGA-Ⅱ algorithm. The results obtained by solving the target deviation rate minimization model can balance every target. The branch and bound algorithm can find the global optimal solution at a certain calculation scale with high calculation efficiency, but its efficiency decreases significantly when the operation scale increases. The NSGA-Ⅱ algorithm is more suitable for large-scale solution calculations with high calculation efficiency, and it can output a set of non-inferior solutions for decision makers to select from according to different preference. Taking Aba Prefecture in Sichuan Province as illustration, the feasibility of the model is validated;meanwhile, the effectiveness and benefits of the two approaches in solving the problem of multi-objective set covering of the warehouses are compared and analyzed.