Investigating Greenhouse Gas (CO2) Emission and Performance of Drone in Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Systems

The benefits of using eco-friendly technologies along with their efficiency for EMS systems have caused to address the importance of drones in terms of performance and environmental aspects. In this study, by considering the applications of drone capability such as fast delivery along with a focus on the energy consumption of drone, a new bi-objective mathematical model of locationallocation problem of EMS systems is presented. In the first objective function, the impact of drone to maximize the expected survival of patients is investigated and in the second one, the minimization of CO2 emission of drone utilization in EMS systems is considered which is the most documented and well-known greenhouse gas often used to calculate pollution and energy impacts. The importance of patient’s lives in comparison with the associated reduction of carbon emission has caused to be solved the model by a preemptive fuzzy goal programming approach to measure the achievement degree of objectives. By using data and obtained results from a similar study, the model is evaluated to show the applicability and benefits of drones in healthcare service and environmental aspects. The results show that drone utilization in comparison with regular ambulance vehicles can save more lives as well as emit less CO2. The results strongly support the notion that using drones for EMS systems is not only efficient but also is environmentally friendly.