Special Issue on Disaster Supply Chain Management under Pandemics

The International Disaster Database (EM-DAT) has reported that the number of disasters and the people affected have rocketed in recent years, this poses potential threats to society. This is particularly true of  pandemics such as the COVID-19 outbreak which triggered large casualties, property losses and environmental disruptions all over the world. In the aftermath of such large-scale pandemics, demand for relief drastically increases and limited resources are available. Without more up-to-date information on the evolution of large-scale pandemics, it is difficult to accurately estimate supply and demand for relief distribution. In order to be able to better cope with pandemics, we need to better integrate uncertain demand, supply and distribution of relief in disaster supply chain management.

In addition, we should accept the fact that pandemics (e.g. COVID-19) not only result in various losses, but also produce a variety of disaster waste generated from foods and medical supplies. This makes emergency response more challenging. Disaster debris exerts unfavorable impacts on sustainable development of the society, economy and environment. For example, temporary transfer centers may need to be urgently established to alleviate the burden of processing centers due to a sharp increase of disaster waste. Furthermore, the transportation of disaster waste needs to be optimised because different types of disaster debris may have different influences on the performance of a disaster supply chain. Waste exposed in the affected areas may induce infections and threaten public health and safety.

Emergency organisations play an indispensable role in relief distribution and disaster waste management. In order to effectively respond to disasters, efficient strategies for supply chain management and allocation strategies are essential.

We invite researchers from a wide range of disciplines such as public administration, management science, operational research, operations management, computational science, applied mathematics and statistics to submit their contributions to this special issue.

Topics covered:

• Disaster supply chain governance
• Disaster supply chain analytics and optimisation
• Resilient supply chains
• Disaster operations management
• Humanitarian supply chain and sustainable development
• Sustainable disaster debris reverse supply chain management
• Disaster waste management
• Disaster and circular economy
• Relief distribution strategies
• Emergency organization allocation
• Coordination mechanism regarding rescue organization
• Emergency resource allocation and ICT technologies (e.g. blockchain)

Important Deadlines: 

 Submission deadline: 15 September 2021

Submission Instructions:

Please read the Guide for Authors before submitting. All articles should be submitted online, please select VSI: Disaster Supply Chain Management under Pandemics on submission.

Guest Editors:

• Prof. Yongjian Li, Tianjin University, China. Email: yongjianli@tju.edu.cn
• Prof. Cejun Cao, Chongqing Technology and Business University, China. Email: caocejun0601@ctbu.edu.cn
• Prof. Xianhua Wu, Shanghai Maritime University, China. Email: 185390@shmtu.edu.cn
• Prof. Qiuhong Zhao, Beihang University, China. Email: qhzhao@buaa.edu.cn
• Prof. Yanbing Ju, Beijing Institute of Technology, China. Email: juyb@bit.edu.cn
• Prof. Ernesto DR Santibanez Gonzalez, University of Talca, Chile. Email: santibanez.ernesto@gmail.com