Covering vehicle routing problem: applications for refugee related services
Author
Buluç, Elfe Naz
Advisor
Yetiş, Bahar
Date
2018-07Publisher
Bilkent University
Language
English
Type
ThesisItem Usage Stats
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Abstract
The world is facing a refugee crisis because of the ongoing war in Syria, and it
is important to develop refugees' life conditions and increase their integration to
the host communities. There are several services given to refugees to improve humanitarian
development. The distribution of cash and e-vouchers to refugees and
the routing of trucks which provide Child Friendly Spaces to vulnerable refugee
children are addressed in this study. Both problems have similar characteristics
as they provide services using mobile vehicles. The distribution of e-vouchers
problem is applied for two scenarios, where local distribution centers are opened
to cover an area, and a combination of local distribution centers and hand-tohand
delivery is conducted to increase the accessibility. The given problems are
categorized as Covering Vehicle Routing Problem and Covering Vehicle Routing
Problem with Integrated Tours which are introduced to the literature. The
performance of the proposed models is tested and a sensitivity analysis on the
problem parameters is given. Three optimization based heuristics are proposed
to improve solving times. The proposed solutions are applied to a real life case of
city Kilis. In order to apply the models to the routing of Mobile Child Friendly
Spaces problem, a bi-objective version of the proposed models is given where the
aim is to minimize the unsatis ed demand while minimizing travelled distance.
-constraint method is applied to solve the bi-objective application and all Pareto
Optimal solutions are obtained.
Keywords
Humanitarian LogisticsRefugee Services
Covering Vehicle Routing Problem
Integrated Tours
Bi-objective Optimization