A lexicographic maximin approach to the selective assessment routing problem

Max-min approaches have been widely applied to address equity as an essential consideration in humanitarian operations. These approaches, however, have a significant drawback of being neutral when it comes to solutions with the same minimum values. These equivalent solutions, from a max-min point of view, might be significantly different. We address this problem using the lexicographic maximin approach, a refinement of the classic max-min approach. We apply this approach in the rapid needs assessment process, which is carried out immediately after the onset of a disaster, to investigate the disaster's impact on the affected community groups through field visits. We construct routes for an assessment plan to cover community groups, each carrying a distinct characteristic, such that the vector of coverage ratios are maximized. We define the leximin selective assessment problem, which considers the bi-objective optimization of total assessment time and coverage ratio vector maximization. We solve the bi-objective problem by a heuristic approach based on the multi-directional local search framework.

Automated summary

Max-min approaches are widely used in humanitarian operations to address equity, but they have a drawback when handling solutions with the same minimum values. To overcome this, we propose the lexicographic maximin approach and apply it to the rapid needs assessment process. By constructing routes and maximizing the coverage ratio vector, we cover community groups with different characteristics in the assessment plan.