Intl. Trans. in Op. Res. 25 (2018) 1053–1079 DOI: 10.1111/itor.12508 INTERNATIONAL TRANSACTIONS IN OPERATIONAL RESEARCH Multicriteria optimization approach to deploy humanitarian logistic operations integrally during floods Christopher Mejia-Argueta a , Juan Gayt´ an b , Rafael Caballero c , Juli´ an Molina c and Bego ˜ na Vitoriano d a Department of Industrial Engineering and Innovation Sciences, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, 3169, Den Dolech 2, Eindhoven, Nord Brabant 5612AZ, the Netherlands b School of Engineering, Universidad Autonoma del Estado de Mexico, 225104, Toluca, Estado de Mexico, Mexico c Applied Economics (Mathematics), Campus El Ejido, University of M´ alaga, M´ alaga 29071, Spain d Department of Statistics and Operational Research and Institute of Interdisciplinary Mathematics, Comunidad de Madrid, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 16734 Madrid, Spain E-mail: christopher.mejia.argueta@gmail.com [Mejia-Argueta]; jgi@uaemex.mx [Gayt´ an]; r_caballero@uma.es [Caballero]; julian.molina@uma.es [Molina]; bvitoriano@mat.ucm.es [Vitoriano] Received 13 October 2016; received in revised form 15 December 2017; accepted 23 December 2017 Abstract This paper addresses frequent and foreseeable floods in the short-term preparedness of an imminent event using a multicriteria optimization model integrated with a geographical information system to simulate flood levels, determine the best strategies, and update information. The proposed model takes into account the four main relief operations: location of emergency facilities (i.e., distribution centers, shelters, and meeting points), prepositioning of humanitarian aid, evacuation, and distribution of humanitarian aid. Three criteria are considered in the formulation to minimize: the maximum evacuation flow-time, the maximum distribu- tion flow-time, and total cost of relief operations. The approximation to the efficient frontier is built using multiobjective programming through the use of commercial software. The usefulness and robustness of the model are verified using data from one of the worst Mexican floods considering various flood levels created from three key elements in humanitarian logistics. The strategies provided by the proposed methodology are compared with those implemented by the Mexican authorities during the studied disaster. Keywords: multiple-objective programming; efficient solution; weighted-sum method; ε-constraint; humanitarian opera- tions 1. Introduction Natural disasters have impacted the world’s population throughout the history of humanity with terrible consequences for inhabitants and their environment, as observed in several disasters over the past decade reported in Aon Benfield (2016). According to the International Database of C  2018 The Authors. International Transactions in Operational Research C  2018 International Federation of Operational Research Societies Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main St, Malden, MA02148, USA.