Operations research has embraced emergency response and emergency services since its inception. Amongst others, optimization methods have been used to improve the service of emergency medical services, fire fighters, and police forces. We can, for instance, provide decision support to improve the utilization of emergency response resources, shorten the response time, or increase situational awareness.
Moreover, we can address logistical challenges, as the distribution of protective equipment, relieve goods, medication, and vaccines. These methods have been also used to address emergencies in an industrial environment, for planning and optimizing an emergency response system for transporting offshore personnel.