Development of a request prioritization system for humanitarian aid under resource constraints

Abstract

The paper addresses the problem of systematic prioritization of humanitarian aid requests under resource constraints during emergency situations. The shortcomings of existing allocation approaches – FIFO queuing, manual triage, and rule-based systems – are analysed. A formalised Weighted Priority Score (WPS) model is proposed, incorporating five dimensions: urgency level, applicant vulnerability index, request age, resource availability, and geographic request density. The architecture of a prioritization software module within a web-based humanitarian aid coordination platform is described. A comparative analysis of the proposed model against alternative approaches is performed, and simulation experiment results on a synthetic dataset are presented. The findings confirm that the multi-factor model reduces mean waiting time for critical requests and decreases distributional inequality in aid allocation across vulnerable population groups.