A predictive multistage postdisaster damage assessment framework for drone routing

This study focuses on postdisaster damage assessment operations supported by a set of drones. We propose a multistage framework, consisting of two phases applied iteratively to rapidly gather damage information within an assessment period. In the initial phase, the problem involves determining areas to be scanned by each drone and the optimal sequence for visiting these selected areas. We have adapted an electric vehicle routing formulation and devised a variable neighborhood descent heuristic for this phase. In the second phase, information collected from the scanned areas is employed to predict the damage status of the unscanned areas. We have introduced a novel, fast, and easily implementable imputation policy for this purpose. To evaluate the performance of our approach in real-life disasters, we develop a case study for the expected 7.5 magnitude earthquake in Istanbul, Turkey. Our numerical study demonstrates a significant improvement in response time and priority-based metrics.