Logistics and decision chains in disaster management; Floods in Austria / Case simulation: Krems-Mautern an der Donau

Abstract

The main purpose of this final master thesis is to analyse the analysis of the chain of decisions concerning a disaster situation as well as its consequences. Furthermore, the logistical issues concerning resource distribution in case of a flooding event are investigated. A particular disaster event situated in Lower Austria is used, due to the fact that the final master thesis is developed in Austria. Concerning this main objective, the study begins at an international level, where cooperation and coordination of several organizations are studied, to focus afterwards on Austrian organization. A case study is conducted to compare practice and guidelines regarding the main decision chains. In addition to this, a hypothetical situation is generated in terms of deciding and finding out which the best logistical decision is as far as it concerns the satisfaction of the population. The main objective is to reduce the number of unsatisfied customers to the minimum and to guarantee the minimum stocks to the local distribution centres. This operation is restricted to a limited governmental budget. Therefore, it is necessary to explain all the cooperating and coordinating organizations involved in a disaster situation. The simulation and subsequent conclusions are carried out with the simulation software AnyLogic. The simulation problem has not only the restriction of the available budget bounded to the supplying chain, but also technical (resources, trucks) constraints. The main objective is to minimize the number of unsatisfied people in the area. The final master thesis is developed with the collaboration of the BOKU University (University of Natural Resources and Life Science) of Vienna, in particular with the Institute of Production and Logistics. In contrast to the first theoretical part, the simulation offers a very wide range of possibilities to model different scenarios. It is a very dynamic and interesting procedure, capable itself to give important results. In this final master thesis, four different scenarios are simulated, implying each of them different constraints. In each of the scenarios the total demand of each store is given as well as the number of total satisfied customers and units in stock. Furthermore, the results obtained are very useful to get quite an exact approach to the real situation of a flood. In addition to this, technical parameters like the needed stock to satisfy the demand or the optimal number of trucks to ship stock are established. All the results are compared within different graphics and charts, finding out the best solution in each simulated scenario. In summary, and due to the lack of studies around this topic, this document becomes very interesting and a useful tool to start within the study of natural hazards.