A new facility location model for emergency services considering sufferers’ priorities

In natural and unnatural disasters, demand influx and service network traffic are two major challenges for emergency services. The aim of this research is to develop an emergency service facility location model that minimizes service network traffic and cost of meeting sufferers’ demand in which facilities are ranked based on minimal route congestion. In this paper, the main factors for meeting sufferers’ needs are identified based on an extensive review of the literature. Then, cause-effect relationships between the factors and their importance are determined using DEMATEL and Eigenvector methods, respectively. Finally, a two-objective mathematical model is developed to minimize the cost of meeting sufferers’ needs. The proposed model incorporates all the factors together as well as their relationships and improves services and meets sufferers’ needs in emergency services based on minimal cost and en-route congestion