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This study aims to examine the traditional disaster management cycle; discussing the significance of incorporating contemporary management concepts into the disaster management cycle; and proposing a conceptual model that reflects contemporary management insight for the disaster management cycle.

A literature review was made to discuss the significance of moving towards a more contemporary view to the disaster management cycle that brings more value to the final outcomes of the disaster management process. A conceptual model was then proposed to reflect a more contemporary view to the disaster management cycle. The current COVID-19 pandemic has also been addressed explicitly throughout the paper as a case that reflects the necessity of embracing contemporary insight and practise in the traditional disaster management cycle.

The literature indicates that people worldwide, as well as academics still rely heavily on the traditional disaster management lifecycle to manage disasters and major incidents which consists of four main stages; preparedness, mitigation, response and recovery unrecognizing that each and every disaster is a unique incident itself and that it should be treated differently. Contemporary management thought and insight is still lacking in the study of disaster and emergency management.

This research offers a contemporary view to the traditional disaster management cycle in which recent concepts of management are used to better cope with the uniqueness of the different major incidents. This view fosters wider involvement of individuals and the general public in the disaster management process and highlights elements of creativity and modernity. The current COVID-19 pandemic, despite the many adverse consequences associated with it, has contributed constructively to the ways the traditional disaster management cycle is being implemented and practised worldwide.

This research is expected to be of a substantial value for those interested in improving performance during the various stages of the disaster management process, as well as those interested in improving organizational, social and national resilience. The traditional disaster management cycle tends to be procedural and therefore needs to embrace contemporary management thought and more value-based approaches.

The term “causes” of disasters is used interchangeably very often with other terms, such as “types” of disasters. Also, causes of disasters are usually explained in the literature in an individualistic fashion relating every single disaster with its own causes only. This limits the ability to identify the real causes of disasters. Second, it reduces the ability to create any kind of grouping for the causes of disasters. The purpose of this paper is to identify and discuss causes of disasters in a more categorical manner.

An extensive review of the existing literature has been made in order to identify, introduce and discuss theories related to the causes of disasters. Overall, the approach taken is based on theoretical reasoning informed by the literature.

Disasters, even those which seem to be composite and complex, are not mysterious incidents that cannot be explained or analyzed. Literally, almost all disasters can be diagnosed and the causes of disasters can be identified in a systematic and reasonable manner.

This study provides a better conceptualization and understanding of the causes of disasters. It is believed that this study will improve the decision-making process accompanied with the disaster risk reduction processes by understanding the exact causes of disasters. The study also clarifies the differences between the causes, sources and types of disasters which is extremely significant in disaster lifecycle modeling.

To the author’s knowledge, very few attempts have been made in the literature to capture causes of disasters in a categorical and systematic manner. Almost all disaster occurrences have been discussed in the literature in an individualistic fashion relating every single disaster with its own causes only.

The purpose of this paper is to present a literature review of humanitarian logistics (HL) that aims to identify trends and suggest some directions for future research.

This conceptual paper develops a research framework for literature review through qualitative and quantitative content analysis. First, previous literature reviews in HL are updated and detailed. Then, seven classification criteria are added to earlier ones in order to advance the literature analysis.

The conclusions identify some literature gaps and research opportunities. The main conclusions are the need for more studies into the disaster recovery phase and the need for closer relationships between academia and humanitarian organizations to increase the number of applied research.

The literature is limited to academic peer-reviewed journals because of their academic relevance, accessibility, and ease of searching.

Help potential researchers to set up a research agenda for future work.

Reinforce earlier calls to increase truly applied research and improve social impact of the field.

In total, 228 papers that were published in the HL area are reviewed, giving rise to the most extensive literature review in this area. New dimensions for literature review in HL are proposed, which give some new insights into potential research directions.

Policy is key for effective displacement governance in times of crises and in response and recovery. Therefore, this study assessed if Australian climate, disaster and emergency management policies provide effective mechanisms for governing displacement crises and areas where current approaches could be improved.

This study assessed 18 national and state-level disaster, emergency and climate change management frameworks to determine if best practice displacement governance themes were reflected in policy documents. Deductive thematic analysis was undertaken using Braun and Clarke’s six-phase method.

Issues of displacement are reflected in policies analysed in this study. However, current policy frameworks need to be equipped to comprehensively address the housing requirements of displaced people or provide long-term initiatives. Approaches are focused on crisis management rather than pre-emptively planning for displacement response and recovery. Therefore, Australia has not exercised national responsibility for displaced people appropriately.

Disaster displacement is an under-researched area of Australian scholarship and disaster management policy and practice. Therefore, this paper has practical implications in so far as it draws attention to the issue of displacement in Australia. A limitation of this paper is that it only analysed policy frameworks specific to disasters. While broader engagement was outside the scope of this study, this limitation provides opportunities for further research from disciplinary perspectives of public housing and homelessness to examine displacement policy challenges in these fields. Furthermore, this study is limited to a theoretical inquiry into this topic through a desktop review of policy documents. While this is a necessary first step, empirical studies are required to determine accurate displacement rates, drivers and people’s experience of being displaced.

This research aims to inform policy by presenting recommendations for policy interventions for disaster displacement governance. Therefore, this research has practical implications as policy and disaster risk reduction (DRR) professionals can draw from the findings of this research when planning and initiating disaster response for displaced persons.

This research draws attention to an area of disaster management practice and policy that has not been adequately accounted for. Highlighting gaps in current policy can assist in developing targeted strategies and solutions for internally displaced people, which protect their rights and meet their needs.

Displacement is a growing climate change issue. This research aims to help address this problem by drawing attention to areas where Australian disaster management approaches fail to account for displaced populations. Therefore, this research has practical implications for addressing future issues of disaster injustice that may arise if displacement continues, unacknowledged in disaster management.

The purpose of this study is to show that the current complexity of humanitarian operations has only increased the usefulness of system dynamics (SD) in helping decision-makers better understand the challenges they face.

A critical analysis to evaluate how SD methodology has been applied to humanitarian operations.

Today's humanitarian operations are characterized by huge complexity given the increased number of stakeholders, feedback loops, uncertainty, scarce resources and multiple objectives. The authors argue that SD's tools (causal-loop diagram, data layer, simulation model) have the capacity to appropriately capture this complexity, thereby enhancing intuition and understanding.

Researchers and practitioners hesitate to use system dynamics when data is missing. The authors suggest alternatives to deal with this common situation.

This paper proposes a maturity model (MM) for assessing disaster operations and identifying strategies for organisations to evolve their maturity stages.

This study applies a systematic literature review to identify state-of-the-art work related to maturity models for disaster operations. In addition, the study develops a case study to validate the proposed maturity model in a generic scenario and two real-life scenarios.

The analysis of 158 papers in the literature resulted in identifying 8 maturity models for disaster operations. Based on their structure, the authors proposed a new model with five maturity stages suitable for any of the four phases of the disaster life cycle (i.e. mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery). In addition, the research identified and presents 24 strategies for improving disaster operations according to each maturity stage transition. Finally, the research presents a case study that evaluates the disaster response operations from a Civil Defense organisation considering a response scenario disaster in general, a flood scenario, and the COVID-19 pandemic scenario.

This study provides the following three main contributions useful for academics and practitioners in the disaster operations area: a new maturity model for assessing disaster operations, a strategy guide for improving disaster operations based on a maturity evolution and an empirical study exploring the approximation between academia and professionals involved in real-life disaster operations management.

Iran is located among the top disaster‐prone countries in the world and, therefore, disaster management is considered to be one of the most important issues in this country. One of the existing and worldwide approaches for managing disasters is the so‐called community‐based disaster management (CBDM). Community participation means that people's contribution in the disaster management cycle can be started from the basic steps of a process and ends in the achievement and institutionalization in the community. The purpose of this paper is to make a comparative study on the CBDM in various selected countries in order to design a model for Iran.

A descriptive‐comparative study was undertaken through a methodology including six steps in which a few countries have been chosen based on their contribution to issues such as policy making, planning, coordination, and control and organizing of disasters as well as their experience in disaster management and access to related information.

The results of the study show that, in order to achieve a successful disaster management, there is a need for the participation of the community in various disaster management lifecycles. However, it is evident that the type of contribution may differ according to the characteristics of each specific country.

By using the CDBM, it is hoped that, with updating and implementing this model, the government's capability enhances in order to encounter disasters more effectively in the future.

On the basis of these findings, a model was designed to use CDBM in Iran. The issue most emphasized by this model is the presence and contribution of community at the local level in villages and neighborhoods in a city.

Social media, such as Twitter, has become the first and the most frequent place to visit in order to gain information and establish situational awareness in emergencies and disasters. The purpose of this paper is to examine public opinion on Twitter in different disaster stages using the case of Hurricane Irma.

More than 3.5m tweets capturing the entire disaster lifecycle were collected and analyzed. Topic modeling was used to generate topics at each disaster stage based on Fink’s (1986) four-stage model of crisis and disaster: prodromal, acute, chronic and termination stages.

The results revealed that media reliance varied across different stages. All topics in the prodromal stage were associated with the early warning and real-time news. The topic of lessons learned from Hurricane Harvey was the most popular at this stage. The acute stage recorded the highest number of daily tweets. The most popular topic was the safety of people and animals. In the chronic stage too, the safety of people and animals remained a major concern. Heroic and anti-social behaviors also received substantial attention. In the termination stage, climate change was the most frequently discussed topic. Politics-related discussions were heated.

The results extended and enhanced the four-stage model of crisis and disaster. These findings can help government agencies and crisis managers address audience needs effectively at various crisis stages in a timely manner.