Connected distribution center location problem under traffic network in emergency management

Distribution centers, as place of reserving, distributing and transiting relief goods, play an important role in emergency management. Location of distribution center is important to improve the efficiency of the emergency response. In this paper, we consider the Connected Distribution Center Location Problem (ConDCL), which aims to minimize the total transportation cost or time between each pair of the selected distribution centers that must satisfy the coverage request of each demand city. For solving this problem, we formulated a mathematic model and proposed a genetic algorithm. Computational results show that this proposed algorithm is efficient. This research may help emergency managers to make robust decisions.