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Research

Below are highlights of ongoing projects:

Optimizing Allocation of Donations in Food Bank Operations

Food banks play a crucial role in addressing food insecurity by receiving and distributing donated food to those in need. However, several factors complicate the allocation process and pose significant logistical and decision-making challenges. This research concentrates on allocating diverse food donations to regional distribution units within a designated area, considering multiple time periods. The study aims to address challenges related to allocating various types of food donations to these units and explores the implications of these decisions over time. Ultimately, the project aims to offer informed recommendations to food banks, assisting them in making optimized allocation decisions.

Sustainable public service performance during slow-onset disasters

Disasters impact communities differently, with existing vulnerabilities and inequalities magnifying the disparities in public service needs. Recognizing the unique requirements of communities that rely on government assistance is crucial for decision-makers to appropriately allocate resources during crises. This approach ensures that service provision remains effective, efficient, and equitable across the entire region. This project investigates how service operations can be successfully managed to maintain the operational performance goals of public organizations during slow-onset disasters. In particular, we explore the longitudinal impacts of slow-onset disasters for better service performance management as the timely and accurate prediction of deviations from the expected service demand is vital for utilizing limited resources. We study the opportunities for managing service efficiency and equity within and between different service units by rearranging available capacities and prioritization strategies in the wake of disasters. The project further discusses the differential impacts of such disasters across locations of socio-economically diverse populations to emphasize the need to consider the diverse needs of people for efficient and equitable service provision.

Photo from the invited talk at the University of Central Florida. Urban Resilience Initiative Leading Scholar Lecture Series, “Supporting Disaster Management with Non-Emergency eGovernment Systems”, with Christopher Zobel, May 2023.
A memory from the interdisciplinary research project meeting. Collaboration between Urban Plannning, Geosciences and Business Information Technology. Yang Zhang, Laura Szczyrba, Duygu Pamukcu, Ipek Eroglu (from left to right)

Peer-reviewed Journal  Publications

  • Szczyrba, L., Zhang, Y., Pamukcu, D., Eroglu, D. I., & Weiss, R. (2021) Quantifying the Role of Vulnerability in Hurricane Damage via a Machine Learning Case Study, Natural Hazards Review, 22(3), 04021028.
  • Pamukcu, D., & Balcik, B. (2020). A multi-cover routing problem for planning rapid needs assessment under different information-sharing settings. OR Spectrum, 42(1), 1-42.

Submitted/Under Review

  • Pamukcu, D., Zobel, C. W. Managing the demand volatility of a municipal service system during a slow-onset disaster. Manufacturing and Service Operations Management, submission date: June 2023.

Research in Progress

  • Duygu Pamukcu, Julie Paquette, Burcu Balcik, and Marie-Ève Rancourt. Optimizing Allocation of Donated Food in Food Bank Operations. Working paper
  • Duygu Pamukcu, and Christopher W. Zobel. Uncovering challenges in maintaining service performance of public service systems experiencing during slow-onset disasters. Working paper
  • Christopher W. Zobel, Duygu Pamukcu, Viswanath Venkatesh, and Yue “Gurt” Ge. Calling 311: Supporting Disaster Management with Non-Emergency eGovernment Systems. Working paper
  • Duygu Pamukcu, and Christopher W. Zobel. Managing Efficiency and Equity in the Operational Performance of Public Service Systems During a Disaster. Working Paper
  • Duygu Pamukcu, Melih Celik, and Burcu Balcik. Integrating logistics planning and population sampling decisions for humanitarian needs assessment. Working paper

Published Refereed Conference Proceedings

  • Pamukcu, D., Zobel, C. W., & Ge, Y. (2023) Prioritization of disaster-related requests in an IT-enabled public service system. In Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (ISCRAM).
  • Zobel, C. W., Pamukcu, D. (2023). Examining User Access Options for eGovernment Services During a Crisis from a Digital Inequality Perspective. In 2023 56th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), IEEE.
  • Pamukcu, D., Zobel, C. W., & Ge, Y (2022). DEA-based Approach for Managing Performance of Public Service Systems During a Disaster. In Proceedings of the 19th International ISCRAM Conference.
  • Kianmehr, A. & Pamukcu, D. (2022). Analyzing citizen’s needs during an extreme heat event, based on 311 service requests: A case study of 2021 heat wave in Vancouver, British Columbia. In Proceedings of the 19th International ISCRAM Conference.
  • Pamukcu, D., Zobel, C. W., & Ge, Y (2021). Analysis of Orange County 311 System Service Requests During the COVID-19 Pandemic. In Proceedings of the 18th International ISCRAM Conference.
  • Haque, A., Pamukcu, D., Xie, R., Zaker Esteghamati, M., Cowell, M., & Irish, J. (2021). Cascading Effects of Mass Gatherings on COVID-19 Infections from a Multi-hazard Perspective: A Case Study of New York City. In Proceedings of the 18th International ISCRAM Conference.
  • Pamukcu, D., Zobel, C. W. (2021) Characterizing 311 System Reactions to a Global Health Emergency. In 2021 54th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), IEEE.
  • Pamukcu, D., Zobel, C. W., & Arnette, A. (2020). Characterizing Social Community Structures in Emergency Shelter Planning. In Proceedings of the 17th International ISCRAM Conference.
  • Eroglu, D. I., Pamukcu, D., Szczyrba, L., & Zhang, Y. (2020). Analyzing and contextualizing social vulnerability to natural disasters in Puerto Rico. In Proceedings of the 17th International ISCRAM Conference.
  • Szczyrba, L., Zhang, Y., Pamukcu, D., & Eroglu, D. I. (2020). A Machine Learning Method to Quantify the Role of Vulnerability in Hurricane Damage. In Proceedings of the 17th International ISCRAM Conference.
  • Arnette, A., Zobel, C. W., & Pamukcu, D. (2020). Post-Impact Analysis of Disaster Relief Resource Pre-Positioning After the 2013 Colorado Floods. In Proceedings of the 17th International ISCRAM Conference.
  • Pamukcu, D., Zobel, C. W., & Arnette, A. (2019). A New Data-Driven Approach to Measuring Hurricane Risk. In Proceedings of the 16th International ISCRAM

Conference Presentations

  • Pamukcu D., Zobel C. W. “Leveraging E-Government data to ensure equitable access to public services during a slow-onset disaster”. 2023 Annual POMS Conference, Orlando, FL, USA.
  • Pamukcu D., Zobel C. W. “Managing the Volatility of a Municipal Service System During a Slow-onset Disaster”. 2022 INFORMS Annual Meeting, Indianapolis, IN, USA.
  • Pamukcu D., Zobel, C. W., & Ge, Y. “DEA-based Approach for Managing Performance of Public Service Systems During a Disaster”. 2022 Annual Conference on ISCRAM, Tarbes France.
  • Pamukcu D., Kianmehr, A. “Analyzing citizen’s needs during an extreme heat event, based on 311 service requests: A case study of 2021 heat wave in Vancouver, British Columbia”. 2022 Annual Conference on ISCRAM, Tarbes France.
  • Pamukcu D., Zobel, C. W. “Maintaining public service efficiency and equality during disasters: A DEA based Goal Programming modeling approach”. 2022 Annual POMS Conference, Virtual.
  • Pamukcu D., Zobel C. W. “Analysis of Non-emergency Call System During the COVID-19 Pandemic”. 2021 INFORMS Annual Meeting, Anaheim, CA, USA.
  • Pamukcu D., Zobel, C. W. & Ge Y. “Analysis of Orange County 311 System Service Requests During the COVID-19 Pandemic”. 2021 Annual Conference on ISCRAM, Virtual.
  • Pamukcu D., Zobel, C. W. & Ge Y. “311 Non-emergency Call System Reactions to COVID-19 Pandemic”. 2021 Annual POMS Conference, Virtual.
  • Pamukcu D., Zobel, C. W. “Characterizing 311 System Reactions to a Global Health Emergency”. 2021 Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Virtual.
  • Pamukcu D., Zobel C. W., Arnette A. “Characterizing Social Community Structures in Emergency Shelter Planning”. 2020 INFORMS Annual Meeting, Virtual.
  • Pamukcu D., Zobel C. W., Arnette A. “Characterizing Social Community Structures in Emergency Shelter Planning”. 2019 INFORMS Annual Meeting, Seattle, WA, USA.
  • Pamukcu D., Arnette A., Zobel C. W. “Quantifying Disaster Risk in Hurricane Florence to Support Sheltering Decisions”. 2019 POMS Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, USA.
  • Pamukcu D., Celik M., Balcik B. “Routing for Post-Disaster Needs Assessment to Improve Information Accuracy and Precision”. 2018 INFORMS Annual Meeting, Phoenix, AZ, USA.
  • Pamukcu D., Celik M., Balcik B. “Routing for Post-Disaster Needs Assessment to Improve Information Accuracy”. 2017 INFORMS Annual Meeting, Houston, TX, USA.
  • Pamukcu D., Eroglu D. I. “Decomposition-based Stochastic Program for a Debris Collection Problem”. 2017 37th National Congress on Operations Research and Industrial Engineering, Istanbul, Turkey.
  • Pamukcu D., Balcik B. “Models for The Needs Assessment Routing Problem”. 2016 INFORMS Annual Meeting, Nashville, TN, USA.