Novel Formulation for Congestion Management During Emergency Response

Emergency response services are vital in safeguarding public safety and minimizing the impact of disasters. A key aspect of this is efficient emergency management, which includes optimizing the routing of emergency vehicles to reduce response times. This paper introduces a mathematical model for coordinating emergency vehicle fleets, focusing on enhancing both response times and resource efficiency. The model incorporates diverse fleet routing strategies to ensure optimal vehicle dispatch in response to incidents. It takes into account factors such as vehicle availability, the urgency of supplies, multiple origin and destination points, and real-world transportation networks. By distributing vehicles across multiple paths, rather than just the shortest one, the model minimizes congestion risks and ensures that resources-especially the most critical-arrive promptly. Case studies demonstrate the model's effectiveness in scheduling and routing emergency vehicles based on truck availability and resource priority. The findings suggest that relying solely on shortest-path routing may not be suitable for large fleets.