On 8 June 2021, Lancaster University researchers from the Centre for Transport and Logistics (CENTRAL) held an online workshop with the participation of the National Disaster Management Authority of the Republic of Indonesia (BNPB) and Humanitarian Forum Indonesia (HFI). The workshop aimed to inform the stakeholders and elicit their feedback regarding the usefulness of the Decision Support System (DSS), currently under development by the GCRF/EPSRC funded project “RESilient Emergency Preparedness for Natural Disaster Response through OR (RESPOND-OR)”.

The RESPOND-OR Principal Investigator (PI), Prof. Konstantinos G. Zografos presented the models associated with the optimization of three major problems emerging in disaster response operations, namely: the allocation and distribution of disaster relief supplies, the routing and scheduling of disaster relief teams, and the evacuation of people and livestock from disaster-impacted areas. Bambang Surya Putra, M.Com, Head of Disaster Response at BNPB, commented, “Overall these models are perfect for us. We can use these [models]. We can enhance and develop these [models] into a very good system for routing the logistics and for [personnel] assignment especially the volunteer workers.” The Co-Is of RESPOND-OR from Universitas Indonesia, Prof. Heru Suhartanto, and Universitas Gadjah Mada, Dr Bertha Maya Sopha also presented the data management and the simulation of the evacuation of people respectively to the RESPOND-OR stakeholders.

Prof. Zografos remarked that CENTRAL researchers are committed to addressing real-world problems of significant economic, environmental, and societal impact and that the CENTRAL/RESPOND-OR researchers are keen to engage with the relevant stakeholders such as BNPB and HFI. Prof Zografos stated, “We assign great value to provide solutions that can assist disaster response agencies to mitigate the impacts of large scale natural disasters.”

The RESPOND-OR project is led by Lancaster University. The CENTRAL RESPOND-OR research team consists of Prof Konstantinos G. Zografos (PI), Prof. Juliana Sutanto (Co-I), Dr Ahmed Kheir (Co-I), Dr Aleksandr Pirogov, Dr Istenc Tarhan, and Doctoral Student Qorib Munajat.