Major public health emergencies have intensified, prompting some regions to implement stringent measures aimed at minimizing population movement, as seen in the response to incidents like the SARS outbreak in 2013 and the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.Reference Aringhieri, Bigharaz and Duma ¹ Amidst the emphasis on public health crisis management, ensuring a stable supply of daily essentials like vegetables, meat, eggs, milk, and grains is imperative to maintain a sense of stability and order in daily life.Reference Lu, Yang and Luo ² The key challenge lies in the scientific and rational distribution of emergency supplies to ensure a consistent supply of various daily essentials within the public health event control area, which is an essential pragmatic concern.

Following the eruption of a significant public health emergency, an area expeditiously enforces lockdown measures and management controls.Reference Wan, Ye and Peng ³ Within this area, there exist N distinct demand points for emergency supplies, which could range from communities, streets, to towns, designed to fulfill the routine needs of all residents within the specified community, street, or town, based on the exigencies of the public health event.Reference Hou, Zhang and Zhang ⁴ Concurrently, there are M designated supply points for emergency provisions. Each supply point retains the option to source emergency supplies from various repositories such as the national reserve bank, production enterprises, or emergency distribution centers. The materials available at these supply points encompass items pre-stored within the national reserve, those contributed by societal donors, and those manufactured as exigencies arise within enterprises.Reference Zhang, Hou and Dong ⁵ The task at hand is to swiftly distribute emergency supplies from M supply points directly to N demand points in alignment with the cyclical requirements of residents. This distribution aims to optimize the satisfaction of fundamental residential needs. A depiction of the network topology structure for the daily dispatch of emergency materials is illustrated in Figure 1.

Figure 1.

Topology structure of the decision-making network.

Amid the extensive lockdown measures in response to the novel coronavirus pneumonia outbreak in Wuhan, Hubei province, the daily supply of emergency necessities becomes reliant on support from other regions to meet the resident’s essential requirements. In this case, 2 types of emergency supplies, namely vegetables and fruits, have been selected, each with a per capita daily demand set at 0.4 kg and 0.2 kg, respectively.Reference Zhang, Long and Li ⁶

From the surrounding provinces, 3 cities—Changsha, Nanchang, and Hefei—are chosen as the points to dispatch these emergency supplies. By considering the number of permanent residents within the epidemic area, the dynamic demand for emergency materials was computed. A model was developed to facilitate dynamic scheduling and decision-making, incorporating multiple supply points, demand points, and materials. These measures aimed to ensure the residents’ livelihood security within the epidemic area in the most efficient and expeditious manner.

Four streets with higher population density in Wuhan were chosen as demand points, while Changsha, Nanchang, and Hefei were designated as supply points. A numerical illustration was constructed for analysis and validation. The scientific dispatch of life-sustaining emergency supplies post the novel coronavirus pneumonia public health event holds significant importance in ensuring the supply of essential emergency materials within epidemic areas. Moreover, this research endeavors to encourage further scholarly exploration into the complexities of dispatching and decision-making for emergency life supplies following large-scale emergencies.