A multi-layer network approach to model the situation before and after the occurrence of humanitarian crisis
Résumé
The complexity of the situation during a humanitarian crisis makes its overall vision difficult. The response to crisis involves many
heterogeneous entities, including a high diversity of field actors (international organizations, local NGOs, army), infrastructures
(air, health, water, road, telecom), transportation means (vehicles), affected populations and available resources. Data available in
real time is often incomplete and dynamic. For example, some roads or other logistical infrastructure may be destroyed by the
disaster and need to be fixed to facilitate humanitarian response operations. Collecting and updating data takes time and is
therefore not always considered as a priority, especially in this specific context where resources are scare and population needs
are critical. Despite their high impact, both in lives and in dollar, few paper actually studied humanitarian crisis with a complex
network approach. While all provide elements to better analyze the situation, they all focus on specific, limited scopes. The
complexity and the overall understanding of the situation is therefore limited. This is the limitation we focus on: providing an
exhaustive view of the situation, combining various elements. We propose to model the response to a humanitarian crisis with a
multi-layer network approach. The model can provide useful insights during operations, to better understand what is going on,
and simulate various response scenarios to choose the best way to utilize the resources available. It can also be used in the
preparedness phase, to propose ways to improve the resilience of the actual network.