An improved harmony search algorithm for emergency inspection scheduling

The ability of nature-inspired search algorithms to efficiently handle combinatorial problems, and their successful implementation in many fields of engineering and applied sciences, have led to the development of new, improved algorithms. In this work, an improved harmony search (IHS) algorithm is presented, while a holistic approach for solving the problem of post-disaster infrastructure management is also proposed. The efficiency of IHS is compared with that of the algorithms of particle swarm optimization, differential evolution, basic harmony search and the pure random search procedure, when solving the districting problem that is the first part of post-disaster infrastructure management. The ant colony optimization algorithm is employed for solving the associated routing problem that constitutes the second part. The comparison is based on the quality of the results obtained, the computational demands and the sensitivity on the algorithmic parameters.