Joint resource allocation and cross-regional scheduling for major epidemic outbreaks

During outbreaks of infectious diseases, significant epidemic resource shortages often occur, resulting in operational paralysis within affected regions. This study investigates the cross-regional scheduling of these resources, as well as the local allocation challenges faced by recipients and suppliers. It considers the heterogeneity of supply and demand, along with the spatiotemporal asynchrony of outbreaks. A model for cross-regional scheduling and joint resource matching is proposed. This model employs a strategy that prioritizes the lowest supply–demand ratio for cross-regional scheduling, alongside a joint matching strategy for local and cross-regional resources, aimed at optimizing resource utilization. The findings indicate that, in scenarios characterized by imbalances in supply and demand across different regions, the strategy of prioritizing the lowest supply–demand ratio effectively facilitates the scheduling of resources from surplus regions to those experiencing shortages. However, the effectiveness of this approach is influenced by the willingness of participants to share resources. When the spatial transmission risk of the epidemic is not considered, the common matching mode demonstrates superior resource utilization to sequential matching mode, although the latter exhibits slightly better performance. Notably, the resource matching rate in scenarios that disregard spatial transmission risk is significantly higher than in those that consider it.