Humanitarian Logistics (Foundations and Trends(r) in Technology, Information, and Op)

Humanitarian Logistics takes a comprehensive look at the issues surrounding humanitarian logistics through the life-cycle of the disaster spanning three stages of operations: preparation, disaster response, and humanitarian relief. The author defines humanitarian logistics from different perspectives, surveys case studies to delineate lessons learned, and reviews analytical models from the literature to understand the state-of-the-art in humanitarian logistics. Humanitarian Logistics reviews the lessons learned in past humanitarian logistics efforts, develops a classification of disasters, and distinguishes between disaster response and humanitarian relief. It examines the factors important for the design of humanitarian logistics using traditional concepts of logistics and supply chain management and compares humanitarian logistics with military logistics and commercial supply chains. It also describes supply chain issues and organizational issues in humanitarian logistics. The monograph concludes with the presentation of case studies of current practices, which places this academic research in the context of reality and provides the broader picture of humanitarian logistics.