TITLE: Optimization in Mathematical Models of Post-Earthquake Search and Rescue
Speaker: Efecan Şentürk
Advisor: Prof. Bahar Yetiş Kara
Date & Time: June 4, 2025, Wednesday at 14:00
Place: EA202
This is an online seminar. To request event details please send a message to department.
ABSTRACT:
Turkey is one of the world’s most earthquake-prone countries, located on the highly active Alpine-Himalayan seismic belt. In the immediate aftermath of a major earthquake, the efficient allocation and scheduling of search and rescue (SAR) teams is critical for saving lives. This paper gives a brief summary of SAR activities in the aftermath of prior destructive earthquakes that happened in Turkey after 1990 and addresses the quick search and rescue problem, focusing on the first few hours following team deployment. We develop a deterministic optimization model for the assignment of professional SAR teams to disaster regions and the scheduling of their operations across collapsed sectors. The main aim of this study is to develop models that account for post-disaster uncertainty in demand and priority. To achieve this goal, we extend our model using minimax regret and alpha-reliable mean excess regret frameworks, enabling risk-aware decision-making under stochastic conditions. To improve the computational efficiency of the alpha-reliable mean excess regret model, we propose a heuristic algorithm that generates high-quality solutions by solving smaller scenario subsets iteratively. The best-performing heuristic solution is then used to warm-start the full stochastic model. Computational experiments are conducted using a simulated earthquake case based on real regional data from Hatay, Türkiye, with demand distributions generated using population-based scaling and randomization. Results show that our deterministic and stochastic models produce interpretable and realistic response strategies, while the heuristic yields near-optimal solutions. Moreover, the warm-start strategy significantly reduces the time required to reach optimality in large-scale instances.
BIO:
Efecan Şentürk received his B.S and graduated from the Department of Industrial Engineering at Bilkent University in June 2023. He is currently pursuing an M.S. degree in the Department of Industrial Engineering and working with Prof. Bahar Yetiş Kara on designing mathematical models and implementing heuristic algorithms to optimize the post-earthquake search and rescue efforts.