Complexity and Self-Sustainment in Disaster Response Supply Chains

Governmental organizations play a major role in disaster relief operations. Supply chains set up to respond to disasters differ dramatically in many dimensions that affect the cost of relief efforts. One factor that has been described recently is self-sustainment, which occurs when supplies consumed by intermediate stages of a supply chain must be provided via the chain itself because they are not locally available. This article applies the concept of self-sustainment to response supply chains. A mathematical model of a self-sustaining response supply chain is developed. Analysis of this model yields insights about the relationships and interactions among self-sustainment, speed of disaster onset, dispersion of impact, and the cost of the relief efforts. [Submitted: July 25, 2013. Revised: October 13, 2014. Accepted: October 15, 2014.]