MARITIME SEARCH AND RESCUE VESSELS LOCATION-ALLOCATION PROBLEM WITH A COST-EFFECTIVENESS MEASURE

Abstract

The East Coast of Canada experiences roughly a thousand maritime incidents per year, many requiring search and rescue (SAR) response from the Canadian Coast Guard (CCG). We developed a location-allocation model to examine different options for improving the SAR coverage by repositioning some vessels across two operational seasons in Atlantic Region. The criteria include the capital and operating costs, insufficiency probability, primary and backup coverage, and the effectiveness of a response resource in addressing a particular kind of incident. The data comprises maritime incidents that occurred over the years 2014-2016 drawn from the CCG SISAR database, information on the CCG vessel characteristics, costs, operational limitations, and expert opinion on their respective capabilities. The results present the trade-off between cost and coverage, and the effectiveness of the response as a function of the vessel capabilities and allocations. A comparison with the current fleet configuration is made and sensitivity analysis examines alternatives arrangements.