Allocation of emergency and recovery centres in Hidalgo, Mexico

Natural disasters affect countries and cities without economic, political or social considerations. National and local governments strive with preparedness, mitigation, response and recovery efforts. State authorities in Hidalgo, Mexico are dealing with stages of disaster management. They are working on a project to allocate emergency/recovery centres throughout the state in such a way that all municipalities are within 55 kilometres of the closest centre. The problem is modelled and solved as a covering problem; during the analysis different features are added including population, state economy participation, physicians' availability and kilometres of roads. The results of this paper may provide opportunities to alleviate governmental concerns and to give relief to natural disaster victims.