Modeling emergency evacuation with time and resource constraints: A case study from Gujarat

• Develop an off-site emergency response plan for a nuclear power plant in Gujarat, India.
• Formulate an optimization model to capture the effect of delay in evacuation.
• Develop a queuing network model with class switching to model traffic congestion.
• Pooling resources among a cluster of affected areas is most suitable for evacuation.

This study develops an off-site emergency response plan for a nuclear power plant in Gujarat, India subject to time constraints with resource limitations and risk of radiation exposure to victims. We formulate an optimization model to capture the effect of delay in evacuation, limited resource availability, and costs associated with resource allocation. A single chain closed queuing network model with class switching is used to model traffic congestion during evacuation. The throughput measures from the queuing network are used as inputs in the optimization model. Further, two resource allocation strategies are suggested and genetic algorithm is used for optimizing resource utilization and evacuation risk. The results indicate that pooling resources among a cluster of affected areas is most suitable for evacuation. Numerical experiments are conducted to analyze the time trade-offs and the effect of service time variability on the expected evacuation time. The proposed model can serve as an important resource planning and allocation tool for emergency evacuation.