Flood Evacuation During Pandemic: A multi-objective Framework to Handle Compound Hazard

TL;DR

This paper introduces a multi-objective simulation-optimization framework for flood evacuation during a pandemic, balancing evacuation efficiency with infection risk in shelters, demonstrated through a case study in Odisha, India.

Contribution

It develops a novel framework combining flood evacuation planning with pandemic infection control using a max-min approach and an extended SEIRS model.

Findings

The framework estimates evacuation numbers to reduce flood hazards without increasing infections.

It effectively balances conflicting objectives of evacuation and infection minimization.

The approach is adaptable to different regions and aids disaster management planning.

Abstract

The evacuation of the population from flood-affected regions is a non-structural measure to mitigate flood hazards. Shelters used for this purpose usually accommodate a large number of flood evacuees for a temporary period. Floods during pandemic result in a compound hazard. Evacuations under such situations are difficult to plan as social distancing is nearly impossible in the highly crowded shelters. This results in a multi-objective problem with conflicting objectives of maximizing the number of evacuees from flood-prone regions and minimizing the number of infections at the end of the shelter's stay. To the best of our knowledge, such a problem is yet to be explored in literature. Here we develop a simulation-optimization framework, where multiple objectives are handled with a max-min approach. The simulation model consists of an extended Susceptible Exposed Infectious Recovered Susceptible (SEIRS) model.We apply the proposed model to the flood-prone Jagatsinghpur district in the state of Odisha, India. We find that the proposed approach can provide an estimate of people required to be evacuated from individual flood-prone villages to reduce flood hazards during the pandemic. At the same time, this does not result in an uncontrolled number of new infections. The proposed approach can generalize to different regions and can provide a framework to stakeholders to manage conflicting objectives in disaster management planning and to handle compound hazards.