Multiobjective facility location model for optimizing Arctic oil spill response

Escalating Arctic shipping necessitates preparedness for marine oil spill, highlighting strategic facility location and resource allocation decisions. Insufficient decision support tools (DSTs) may lead to suboptimal responses, impacting the transportation system. Although several facility location models are available, none have considered the Canadian Arctic's unique circumstances, such as the vulnerability of marine protected areas and remote location. Further investigation is needed for determining number, location and allocation of facilities and resources in the Canadian Arctic. To fill these gaps, an Integer Programming hierarchical multiobjective optimization model is developed. The model contains two objectives: maximizing spill coverage – considering spill size, environmental sensitivity, response time – and minimizing associated facility development and variable costs. Findings demonstrate models' suitability in terms of mean response time, coverage percentage and incurred cost. The proposed optimization model suggests building two new facilities incurring approximately 11 million dollars. Spill coverage is improved by 14% compared to existing setups, and mean response time is reduced from 9.8 h to 7.7 h. While this study assists decision-making, several limitations are highlighted and future research directions are outlined.