Modeling to determine the optimal accessible route to the areas affected by earthquake (Case study: Bahmani region in Bushehr city)

Introduction: With the urban population growth, and accordingly the increase in road traffic, one of the most important factors is to find a suitable solution to decrease the intra-city response time; thus, it is highly important to send a team to the affected areas in order to evaluate the loss and estimate the demand. Since time is critical in responding to crisis, routing of assessment teams was considered as a problem. The literature review shows that a very few studies have addressed the mathematical modeling in crisis management. However, this research aimed to find shortest possible route for Damage Assessment Team in order to assess damages in the affected area. So that the assessment team visited all the main points of the region only once and finally return to starting point. Method: In this study, Bahmani region in Bushehr city was studied and selected by using operations research models for routing earthquake damage assessment teams and the main points of this region were identified as the nodes of the model (۱۹ nodes in total). Findings: By using Lingo software, the mathematical model was coded with۱۸-nodes and ۲۸-existing paths between these nodes and the shortest path to all these nodes were identified. Conclusion: According to the results, this research may develop an effective guide for crisis management of the province; as a result fast relief provides and fatalities will be reduced by identifying the shortest route.