Maximizing Temporary Housing Safety after Natural Disasters

In the aftermath of large-scale natural disasters, emergency management organizations are expected to provide safe temporary housing for a large number of displaced families and to ensure that these housing arrangements are not located in hazardous areas. Potential postdisaster hazards can take many forms such as earthquake aftershocks, landslides, postearthquake soil liquefaction, flooding, hazardous material releases, etc. This paper presents the development of a multiobjective optimization methodology to support decision-makers in emergency management organizations in optimizing postdisaster temporary housing arrangements. The developed methodology incorporates (1) a safety model to measure and quantify temporary housing safety in the presence of multiple potential postdisaster hazards; (2) a cost model to minimize total public expenditures on temporary housing; and (3) a multiobjective optimization model to simultaneously maximize temporary housing safety and minimize public expenditures on temporary housing. An application to a large region is presented to illustrate the use of the models and demonstrate their capabilities in optimizing postdisaster temporary housing arrangements.