Dynamic Multi-Criteria Decision-Making for Identifying Vulnerable Communities for Emergency Planning

Abstract

Effective decision-making is critical for emergency planners before, during, and after emergencies or disasters. Making a timely decision in these situations is complicated and dynamic, presenting conflicting criteria amongst numerous alternatives. This work proposes augmenting the Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) hybrid methodology of AHP-TOPSIS with dynamic-case handling (DCH) calculations. This method is evaluated with an illustrative example of three interrelated scenarios that rank ten counties based on vulnerability related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Empirical results demonstrate that the AHP-TOPSIS method coupled with DCH calculations is a realistic decision-making approach.