Structuring Humanitarian Supply Chain Knowledge Through a Meta-Modeling Approach

Abstract

To develop decision support systems (DSS) that improve humanitarian supply chain (HSC) performance, there is a need for methods that support on field data gathering and knowledge structure. We propose a meta-model to structure the knowledge of HSC and to obtain a shared vision of the HSC. It has been developed to provide a framework to class gathered data by connecting it to HSC concepts. The meta-model includes four packages, defining the collaborative ecosystem (context, actors, objectives, and behavior). The concepts gathered during our field research experiences, added to the HSC core literature, have permitted to build the HSC meta-model layer. Models built from this meta-model can be used as knowledge bases for future DSS, dedicated to support vertical and horizontal coordination and collaboration of actors.