Logistics for Large-Scale Disaster Response: Achievements and Challenges

Much research in the operations research (OR) community has focused on commercial logistics or supply chain management, but there is another kind of logistics problem, dealing with emergency response, that has not as yet received much attention. In this paper, we present a literature review of emergency logistics in the context of large-scale disasters. First, we identify key characteristics of large-scale disasters and assess their possible challenges to emergency logistics. Second, we analyze and summarize the current literature on how to deal with these challenges. Finally, we discuss existing gaps in relevant research and suggest future research directions.