Engineering Disaster Relief

The success of a disaster relief operation is contingent upon the ability to bring the right things to the right place at the right time to the disaster victims. This requires a large-scale system engineering (LSSE) approach that integrates the various functional agencies, systems and capabilities. This paper first briefly describes the magnitude of the disaster in the Asian Tsunami that occurred in Dec 2004. The concepts of LSSE are then explained - the goals, stakeholders, boundaries, political/ military/ economic/ diplomatic considerations and complexities involved in disaster relief. Such factors will help to build up a strategy for planning and executing disaster relief: the disaster management architecture required, the relief efforts needed and the multidisciplinary effort called for in humanitarian aid, public and foreign affairs, resource and logistics management, security concerns, and communications. Finally, using the Asian Tsunami as an example, it shows how such relief has/could been carried out.