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AbstractThis paper addresses the four essential humanitarian operations: location of emergency facilities, prepositioning of supplies, evacuation, and relief distribution by proposing a hybrid method that combines fuzzy set theory, analytic hierarchy process (AHP), a technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution (TOPSIS), and multi-objective programming. The objectives of the proposition are to minimize the evacuation distance, the cost of humanitarian operations, and the suitability of facilities based on qualitative factors while considering the demand, capacity, budget, and utilization constraints. Engineering managers can benefit from the collective expertise of multiple decision-makers, using their knowledge to automatically determine emergency facility location and allocation processes by running the proposed model. The model attempts to achieve a compromise solution for multiple objectives in various humanitarian operations. Finally, the real case study of the Wenchuan earthquake in China is taken to validate the model.

Monitoring is the main emergency information and intelligence department. The natural disaster emergency rescue decision is made on the basis of disaster monitoring information. Obtaining timely and accurate disaster information is the fundamental guarantee for emergency and rapid rescue. Based on the research status of natural disaster emergency monitoring system, this paper proposes the establishment of sky-ground integrated natural disaster emergency monitoring system based on the research method of system management theory, and analyses quantitatively the system performance. Finally, it points out the operation mode and guarantee of the system. The mechanism provides reference for the construction of a scientific and perfect natural disaster emergency monitoring system, which really shortens the time of 'black box' and 'grey box', solves the 'vacuum' of rescue and realises rapid rescue.

The growing interest in the material flow (MF) theory has invoked much interesting research in recent years. Although the MF theory is relatively new, a review of the related literature from a historical perspective shows that MF theory represents a new stage of the evolutionary development of interrelated subjects such as Physical Distribution (PD), Logistics, and Supply Chain Management (SCM). The purpose of this paper is to provide a summative review of the evolution of the subjects of PD, Logistics, and SCM, and their new development, MF theory. The paper aims at tracing how concepts and findings in PD, Logistics, SCM, and MF have been developed and have evolved. The study shows that PD evolved to Logistics in middle of the 1980s; starting from the late 1990s, Logistics has evolved to SCM; and today PD, Logistics, and SCM can be considered to be under the umbrella provided by a new theory called MF theory. This paper points out that MF theory is a necessity to deal with the overwhelming complexity of material flow systems in the global economy of the twenty-first century.