As this chapter was being written, Hurricane Katrina decimated the gulf coast of the United States between Mobile, Alabama, and New Orleans, Louisiana. The aftermath of this storm left the city of New Orleans flooded, both with water and human victims of the storm. Responding to this disaster is a logistical nightmare and presents governmental decision makers with an extremely difficult challenge.
a. Identify several key objectives that the decision makers managing this problem must consider simultaneously.
b. Identify the key resources that the decision makers must allocate.
c. How do the objectives and the resources interrelate?
d. Do the objectives you identified conflict or compete with one another in terms of resource usage?
e. How might the techniques presented in this chapter help decision makers determine how to allocate resources to achieve the objectives?