Alifta Dicasani, Galih Mahardika Munandar, Muhammad Nur Wahyu Hidayah, Faradhina Azzahra
Post-disaster aid logistics is frequently affected by fragmented data, mismatches between needs and availability, distribution delays, and weak accountability. This study integrates a systematic literature review (SLR) and a proof-of-concept (PoC) to examine how blockchain can support data governance and aid traceability. Articles published in 2020-2025 were retrieved from ScienceDirect and Scopus, selected using PRISMA principles, and synthesized thematically from 31 eligible studies. The synthesis identified coordination and information alignment, along with traceability of goods, funds, beneficiaries, and delivery status, as the dominant issues. Frequently reported mechanisms included distributed ledgers, smart contracts, audit trails, cryptographic identities, and role verification. These findings were translated into a Solidity-based smart-contract PoC on a local Ganache network covering requests, stock, allocation, shipment, receipt validation, and event logs. Three synthetic scenarios and an access-control test showed that valid transactions were recorded, over-allocation was rejected, receipt discrepancies were flagged, and unauthorized operations were reverted. Blockchain is therefore better positioned as an infrastructure for data governance and transaction validation than as a standalone solution to all disaster-logistics problems.
Blockchain and distributed ledger technology (DLT) have been proposed for humanitarian operations because their shared-ledger characteristics may support transparency, traceability, accountability and coordination across organisations. This systematic evidence review synthesises research on operational benefits, adoption barriers, implementation conditions and evidence gaps in humanitarian supply chains. The evidence includes systematic reviews, empirical pilot research, expert-based barrier analysis, case-based design research and implementation-framework studies. Across the literature, the most consistently reported potential benefits are visibility, traceability, transparency, auditability, trust and inter-organisational information sharing. The empirical base is smaller than the conceptual literature, and barriers include regulatory uncertainty, skills and training, sustainability costs, privacy, infrastructure, scalability, interoperability and governance. The review proposes an eight-stage implementation pathway centred on problem diagnosis, technology justification, governance, privacy-aware architecture, piloting, capacity building, evaluation and controlled scaling. The framework is a synthesis proposed by the author from the reviewed evidence, rather than a tested causal model. The review concludes that blockchain should be selected conditionally, where multiple independent actors need a shared auditable record and where the expected coordination value justifies the additional technological and governance complexity.
Pieter van den Berg, Andre Calmon, Andreas Gernert, Stef Lemmens · 6 authors
Problem definition: Emergency medical services (EMS) in many low- and middle-income countries utilize decentralized platforms coordinating independent ambulance providers. However, significant operational challenges arise from uncertainty in provider time availability and unpredictable idle locations. These uncertainties hinder reliable service coverage and negatively impact patient outcomes. Using data from our partner Flare in Nairobi, Kenya, we investigate the relative effectiveness of enhancing provider temporal commitment (time availability) versus spatial commitment (strategic location) to improve system coverage.Methodology/results: We employ optimization models adapted for ambulance commitment uncertainty, a detailed case study analysis, data-driven simulations, and a game-theoretic model. Our findings quantify a stark "cost of decentralization": the coverage provided by Flare's approximately 340 loosely committed ambulances could potentially be matched by fewer than 15 optimally deployed fully committed units. We find that enhancing spatial commitment generally yields higher marginal returns for improving coverage than solely increasing time availability. Adding just five optimized, location-flexible ambulances increased coverage substantially in simulation (e.g., by approximately 5\% over the baseline fleet) and reduced service variability. Simulations confirm the practical impact of interventions and validate model assumptions, while a game-theoretic model offers generalizable insights; both approaches align in highlighting the significant value of spatial coordination. Managerial implications: For managers and decision-makers overseeing decentralized EMS platforms, prioritizing strategies that improve spatial coordination offers an efficient path to enhancing service reliability and performance. Actionable strategies include targeted incentives that encourage providers to relocate strategically or deploy a small fleet of location-flexible, platform-controlled units to fill critical coverage gaps. Our framework offers practical tools for managers to identify coverage gaps and assess the potential impact of such interventions in resource-constrained settings, ultimately aiming to enhance emergency response.
ABSTRACT Efficient disaster response requires scalable, transparent and trustworthy resource management systems. However, centralized approaches frequently suffer from coordination delays, data tampering risks, limited transparency and single points of failure, reducing reliability during large‐scale crises. This study presents a decentralised blockchain‐based framework that integrates smart contracts, decentralised multi‐source oracles for Internet of Things (IoT)‐enabled field reporting, role‐based access control and adaptive urgency scoring to improve allocation prioritisation and trust calibration. The architecture follows a structured three‐tier design. The edge layer supports real‐time sensing and secure data offloading through the Inter‐Planetary File System (IPFS). The blockchain logic layer enforces operational policies, dynamic prioritisation, and reputation scoring using modular, gas‐efficient smart contracts. An integration/API layer ensures secure interoperability among emergency agencies and stakeholders. A hybrid blockchain model combines Ethereum Proof‐of‐Stake (PoS) for public transparency with a permissioned consortium chain for controlled governance. Natural Language Processing (NLP) derives urgency scores from textual disaster reports, while a dynamic supply‐demand aware algorithm adapts resource allocation in real time. Multi‐signature governance and reputation mechanisms further enhance accountability. Experimental evaluation on a simulated testnet demonstrates throughput up to 1000 Transactions Per Second (TPS), alongside measurable improvements in fairness, auditability and allocation efficiency.
Enis Karaarslan, Arzu Özkan, Cemal Dak, Umutcan Korkmaz
The necessity for an efficient resource management system during and postdisaster is underscored by the prevalent coordination and resource management challenges faced by various organizations, including non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and government units. To address these problems, our system proposal introduces NGO-RMSD, a blockchain-based decentralized system designed to enhance collaborative efforts during and after disasters. Utilizing the Quorum framework for its energy efficiency, NGO-RMSD enables seamless transactions and updates across parties, eliminating intermediaries and fostering a trusted environment for resource management. This paper details the development of this decentralized system, incorporating smart contracts for autonomous operation. Decentralized systems provide superior security, transparency, and immutability, making them fundamentally more robust and efficient than centralized systems for managing complex, multi-stakeholder scenarios like dis-aster response. This decentralized model ensures transparency, eliminates intermediaries, and enables all parties to conduct transactions and updates reliably. These contracts effectively assess and prioritize the needs of affected individuals, ensuring timely and accurate resource allocation. A proof of concept has been implemented, demonstrating the practicality and potential impact of NGO-RMSD. Designed in alignment with NGO's field requirements and distributed under a free software license, this system promises to significantly improve coordination for disaster resource management. Possible improvements and future work for a more sustainable system is discussed. Looking forward, we aim to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of disaster relief efforts by providing assistance to a larger number of affected individuals in a more organized and expeditious manner.
Open access
Supply Chain Resilience and Risk Management
Facility Location and Emergency Management
Infrastructure Resilience and Vulnerability Analysis
Natural or man-made disasters pose significant challenges for delivering critical relief to affected populations due to disruptions in critical infrastructures and logistics networks. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)-aided disaster relief networks (UDRNs) leverage UAVs to assist existing ground relief networks by swiftly assessing affected areas and timely delivering lifesaving supplies. To meet the growing demands for collaborative, trust-free, and transparent UDRN services, blockchain-based UDRNs emerge as a promising approach through immutable ledgers and distributed smart contracts. However, several efficiency and security challenges hinder the deployment of blockchain-based UDRNs, including the lack of cooperation between smart contracts, lack of dynamic audit for smart contract vulnerabilities, and low forensics robustness against transaction malleability attacks. Towards efficient and secure blockchain-based UDRNs, this paper presents potential solutions: (i) a series of collaborative smart contracts for coordinated relief management, (ii) a dynamic contract audit mechanism to prevent known/unknown contract vulnerabilities; and (iii) a robust transaction forensics strategy with on/off-chain cooperation to resist transaction malleability attacks. Our prototype implementation and experimental results demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of our approach. Lastly, we outline key open research issues crucial to advancing this emerging field.
The disaster area is a constantly changing environment, which can make it challenging to distribute supplies effectively. The lack of accurate information about the required goods and potential bottlenecks in the distribution process can be detrimental. The success of a response network is dependent on collaboration, coordination, sovereignty, and equal distribution of relief resources. To facilitate these interactions and improve knowledge of supply chain operations, a reliable and dynamic logistic system is essential. This study proposes the integration of blockchain technology, the Internet of Things (IoT), and the Internet of Everything (IoE) into the disaster management structure. The proposed disaster response model aims to reduce response times and ensure the secure and timely distribution of goods. The hyper-connected disaster supply network is modeled through a concrete implementation on the Network Simulation (NS2) platform. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed method yields significant improvements in several key performance metrics. Specifically, it achieved more than a 30% improvement in the successful migration of tasks, a 17% reduction in errors, a 15% reduction in delays, and a 9% reduction in energy consumption.
S. K. Joshi, Manu Sharma, Rashmi Prava Das, Kamalakanta Muduli · 8 authors
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected more than 214 countries across the world, disrupting the supply of essential commodities. As the pandemic has spread, humanitarian activities (HAs) have attempted to manage the various situation but appear ineffective due to lack of collaboration and information sharing, inability to respond towards disruption, etc. This study aims to determine and provide insights into the critical factors that may enhance the effectiveness of HAs during the pandemic. A systematic literature review was undertaken to explore critical factors and validated by experts using the fuzzy–Delphi method. These were further assessed to identify the cause-and-effect relationship by means of the fuzzy decision-making trial and laboratory (DEMATEL) method. The results show that building a blockchain-enabled digital humanitarian network (BT-DHN) is the most significant factor during the pandemic. The use of digital platforms for sharing real-time information enhances the effectiveness of HAs. This study offers stakeholders, policymakers, and decision-makers the opportunity to consider these factors in strategic planning to deal with pandemic disruption.
Airline disruption management traditionally seeks to address three problem dimensions: aircraft scheduling, crew scheduling, and passenger scheduling, in that order. However, current efforts have, at most, only addressed the first two problem dimensions concurrently and do not account for the propagative effects that uncertain scheduling outcomes in one dimension can have on another dimension. In addition, existing approaches for airline disruption management include human specialists who decide on necessary corrective actions for airline schedule disruptions on the day of operation. However, human specialists are limited in their ability to process copious amounts of information imperative for making robust decisions that simultaneously address all problem dimensions during disruption management. Therefore, there is a need to augment the decision-making capabilities of a human specialist with quantitative and qualitative tools that can rationalize complex interactions amongst all dimensions in airline disruption management, and provide objective insights to the specialists in the airline operations control center. To that effect, we provide a discussion and demonstration of an agnostic and systematic paradigm for enabling expeditious simultaneously-integrated recovery of all problem dimensions during airline disruption management, through an intelligent multi-agent system that employs principles from artificial intelligence and distributed ledger technology. Results indicate that our paradigm for simultaneously-integrated recovery executes in polynomial time and is effective when all the flights in the airline route network are disrupted.
Open access
2 source records
cs.AI
cs.NE
Infrastructure Resilience and Vulnerability Analysis
Oscar Rodríguez-Espíndola, Soumyadeb Chowdhury, Ahmad Beltagui, Pável Albores
The growing importance of humanitarian operations has created an imperative to overcome the complications currently recorded in the field. Challenges such as delays, congestion, poor communication and lack of accountability may represent opportunities to test the reported advantages of emergent disruptive technologies. Meanwhile, the literature on humanitarian supply chains looks at isolated applications of technology and lacks a framework for understanding challenges and solutions, a gap that this article aims to fill. Using a case study based on the flood of Tabasco of 2007 in Mexico, this research identifies solutions based on the use of emergent disruptive technologies. Furthermore, this article argues that the integration of different technologies is essential to deliver real benefits to the humanitarian supply chain. As a result, it proposes a framework to improve the flow of information, products and financial resources in humanitarian supply chains integrating three emergent disruptive technologies; Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain and 3D Printing. The analysis presented shows the potential of the framework to reduce congestion in the supply chain, enhance simultaneous collaboration of different stakeholders, decrease lead times, increase transparency, traceability and accountability of material and financial resources, and allow victims to get involved in the fulfilment of their own needs.
This study presents conceptual research designed to assess how the sharing economy concept can be leveraged to increase the participation of commercial organisations, such as retailers and transporters, in disaster relief operations. Drawing on social exchange theory, the academic literature on the sharing economy and blockchain, as well as existing resource-sharing practices in commercial and humanitarian logistics, the study develops a theoretical framework for analysing the structure, benefits, and prerequisites of a logistics-sharing system in emergency response. In addition, it proposes to utilise the blockchain distributed ledger technology-a shared data platform that enables authenticated communication and the widespread sharing of real-time information-to facilitate interactions and enhance trust between emergency responders and commercial organisations. It is argued that using commercial logistics resources, including emergency supplies, transport capacity, and storage space, has the potential to improve the mobilisation and deployment of urgently needed relief items and augment the flexibility of emergency response.
Rameshwar Dubey, Angappa Gunasekaran, David Bryde, Yogesh K. Dwivedi · 5 authors
There has been tremendous interest in blockchain technology (BT) (also known as distributed ledger technology) around the globe and across sectors. Following significant success in the financial sector, other sectors, such as humanitarian sector, have started deploying BT at various levels. Although the use of BT in the humanitarian sector is in its infancy, donors and government agencies are increasingly calling for building BT-enabled swift-trust (ST) and more collaborative relationships among various humanitarian actors in order to improve the transparency and traceability of disaster relief materials, information exchanges and flow of funds in disaster relief supply chains. Our study, which is informed by organisational information processing theory and relational view, proposes a theoretical model to understand how BT can influence operational supply chain transparency (OSTC) and ST among actors engaged in disaster relief operations. Our model also shows how BT-enabled ST can further improve collaboration (CO) among actors engaged in disaster relief operations and enhance supply chain resilience (SCR). We formulated and tested six research hypotheses, using data gathered from international non-governmental organisations with the help of the Coordinator for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) database. We received 256 usable responses using a pre-tested survey-based instrument designed for key informants. Our results confirm that our six hypotheses were supported. Our study offers significant and valid contributions to the literature on ST, CO and SCR and BT/distributed ledger technology. We have also noted the limitations of our study and have offered future research directions.
As humanitarian organizations are struggling to reach an increasing number of beneficiaries, humanitarian-business partnerships, such as the use of logistics service providers (LSPs), promise to improve effectivity and efficiency of humanitarian assistance. Blockchain-based smart contracts which ensure automation, transparency, and efficiency promise to facilitate partnerships, particularly if trust is low. In this paper, blockchain-based smart contracts are critically examined for their application to humanitarian supply chains (HSCs). We identify various adoption barriers which we categorize into organizational, technological, and environmental. As the use of blockchain-based smart contracts in HSCs is in its early stages, we propose future research propositions and directions that can provide insights into overcoming barriers and challenges of adopting the technology in the humanitarian sector.