A multiple decision-maker approach to allocating resources to prepare and respond to major disruptions

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2018-01-01
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Landowski, Brandon
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Cameron MacKenzie
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Disruptions are significant events that cause a disturbance in the normal operations of communities and can result in thousands of fatalities, millions of dollars lost, and significant infrastructure and ecological damage. It is difficult to model the different decision makers in a disruption and express the decisions made in a form that all decision makers understand and can act upon. In disruption response planning, it is necessary to have specific allocation strategies in place, rather than just a set of guidelines, so that budgets can be created, and effective distribution pathways can be established. Therefore, models need to incorporate both specific spending strategies and multiple decision makers. The resource allocation model developed allows for the objectives of four different independent decision makers to be combined into a single computational metric of economic production measured in U.S. dollars. The model provides insight into areas where decision makers may benefit from cooperation to yield larger overall gains in the reduction of production losses from a disruption. The identification of overlaps shows the potential effect of shared decision making in a complex decision environment. The model is applied to a hurricane with magnitude akin to Hurricane Katrina in the context of the 2015 economy of the U.S. Gulf Coast. Results from the application illustrate that there is likely double spending and overspending in some industries in the impacted economic region, and shared decision making between decision makers is highly encouraged. Shared decision making between decision makers allows for a greater benefit to the economic region than when the federal government acts alone.

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Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 UTC 2018
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