Humanitarian Logistics

In 2007, there were 34 armed conflicts worldwide. That same year, a total of 414 natural disasters affected 211 million people. "Humanitarian Logistics" examines the challenges facing those whose role it is to organize and distribute resources in difficult situations.

​​​​​​​​​​​​Humanitarian logistics has received increasing interest both from logistics academics and practitioners as a result of the dramatic increase in both natural and man-made disasters. The impact on affected populations can be all the more limited as much as the logistics operations in response to emergencies are effective and efficient. Collaboration with various relevant actors involving in the emergency resolution can help to reduce costs, increase speed, and improve the leanness/agility level in the humanitarian supply chain, and viceversa, poor coordination among them is cited as an explanation for performance gaps. As disasters become increasingly complex better collaboration not only with government agencies, military units, humanitarian organizations, but also through partnerships with private business becomes more and more important. However, such partnerships are not easy as organizations in the two sectors are extremely different. The main aim of this study is exploring more in depth the partnership between profit and non-profit in emergency relief operations, with a specific attention to the cross-learning potential for both the logistics service provider (profit) and the humanitarian organization (non-profit).

Imagine planning an event like the Olympics. Now imagine planning the same event but not knowing when or where it will take place, or how many will attend. This is what humanitarian logisticians are up against. Oversights result in serious consequences for the victims of disasters. So they have to get it right, fast.

This book discusses emerging themes in the area of humanitarian logistics. It examines how humanitarian logistics and supply chains play a key role, focusing on rapidly delivering the correct amount of goods, people and monetary resources to the locations needed to achieve the success of relief efforts in response to global emergencies such as flood, earthquakes, wars etc. With an increase in the frequency, magnitude and impact of both natural and manmade disasters, effective delivery of humanitarian aid is an issue that is becoming increasingly important in the context of disaster management. The book focuses on how logistics systems and supply chains responsible for delivering this aid from origin to recipients can be made more effective and efficient. It also discusses how the development of information technology systems that can provide visibility to the disaster relief supply chain marks a huge step forward for the humanitarian sector as a whole. As more organizations begin to adopt and implement these systems and visibility is established, the use of key performance indicators will then become essential to further enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of these supply chains.

This contributed volume combines conceptual and strategic research articles dealing with the "why" and "to what end" of sustainable operations in humanitarian logistics, as well as operational research contributions regarding the "how" from the United Nations as well as from researchers and organizations from different countries (Germany, Australia, Singapore, Netherlands, Italy, Denmark, Jordan). The target audience primarily comprises research experts, decision makers and practitioners in the field, but the book may also be beneficial for graduate students.

Focusing on the specific challenges of research design and exploring the opportunities of conducting research in humanitarian logistics and supply chain management, this handbook is a significant contribution to future research. Chapters include extensive descriptions of methods used, highlighting their advantages and disadvantages, and the challenges in scoping, sampling, collecting and analysing data, as well as ensuring the quality of studies. Covering a wide variety of topics including risk and resilience and the impact of humanitarian logistics on capacity building, sustainability and the local economy, it also explores the need for scalability and co-ordination in the humanitarian network. Contributors provide important insight on future directions and offer crucial guidance for researchers conducting projects within the field.

City logistics is one of the most popular fields of transportation sciences, dealing with sustainably supplying cities and at the same time reducing congestion and pollution related to goods transport in urban areas. Recently, humanitarian, emergency, and crises logistics has been a subject of increasing interest, often seen from an international viewpoint. However, some of the recent natural crises have shown the importance of resilience and reliability of the current urban logistics systems. The Handbook of Research on Urban and Humanitarian Logistics is a critical scholarly publication that addresses urban logistics and resilience, sustainable urban logistics, humanitarian logistics in urban areas both for crisis or long-term, and planning for resilient urban development. Featuring a broad range of topics that discuss the new and future trends in urban logistics and resilient cities, this publication is ideal for public planners; urban planners; company managers in logistics and transport; consulting agencies; regional, national, and international institutions and organizations; researchers; academicians; and students.

Humanitarian Logistics takes a comprehensive look at the issues surrounding humanitarian logistics through the life-cycle of the disaster spanning three stages of operations: preparation, disaster response, and humanitarian relief.