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This paper aims to call for change in disaster research through a metis-based approach that values practical skills and knowledge (vs technical knowledge) derived from responding to ongoing changes in the natural and human environment.

This paper is based on metis from Miami-Dade County that is prone to an array of climate-related disasters. Metis is supplemented by a review of secondary sources (e.g. newspaper articles, government reports).

There is a need to reconceptualize disaster phases in disaster research—preparedness, response, recovery and mitigation. For many members of marginalized communities of color, this paper depicts preparedness and mitigation as luxuries and response as a time of worry about financial obligations and survival after the disaster. It suggests that even communities that are not on a hurricane's path could have post-disaster experiences. It also highlights ongoing risks to marginalized communities' physical and mental well-being that are in addition to the mental health impacts of the disaster during the recovery phase.

This paper's originality is twofold: (1) underlining the importance of metis, a less studied and understood concept in disaster risk reduction, prevention and management literature and (2) questioning disaster researchers' technical knowledge with respect to each of the four disaster phases in light of metis.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically explore the potential of outsourcing of humanitarian logistics activities to commercial logistics service providers (LSPs) throughout the different disaster phases. The authors identify incentives for initiating outsourcing of humanitarian logistics activities to commercial logistics providers, humanitarian logistics activities to be outsourced and selection criteria for partners.

This study is based on empirical data collected by interviewing 12 practitioners from commercial LSPs and 12 practitioners from humanitarian organizations (HOs). A review of related literature guided this research.

This research shows that incentives for initiating outsourcing engagements, partner selection criteria and activities to be outsourced are changing throughout the different disaster phases. A number of research propositions are presented.

This research constitutes a first step towards the goal of a comprehensive analysis of humanitarian logistics outsourcing throughout the different disaster phases. The authors collected data from practitioners and large organizations based mainly in Europe and the USA. Hence, insights from national and local organizations of other parts of the world are missing.

This research provides a deeper understanding of outsourcing of humanitarian logistics activities. As the main implication for practice, the research suggests a strategic use of outsourcing during the three disaster phases. The authors acknowledge that business objectives, risks, stakeholder agendas and requirements, as well as costs play a vital and changing role for outsourcing decision-making during the three disaster stages. The managerial implications arising from the research can provide support to commercial LSPs and HOs that initiate or develop strategic outsourcing relationships.

This study covers the gap in the humanitarian literature related to context-specific factors of outsourcing in humanitarian logistics by empirically investigating the phenomenon. This is one of the first studies that empirically investigate the potential of outsourcing of humanitarian logistics activities throughout the disaster phases.

This paper aims to describe an in-depth study conducted on transition of recovery into subsequent recovery phases after the 2010 super floods in the Sindh province of Pakistan. The objectives of this research were to examine the post-disaster activities after the floods and highlight the critical areas hindering the transition into an effective recovery phase.

A case study approach based on literature reviews with semi-structured interviews with disaster management stakeholders were applied as the primary source of data.

The study found that long-term recovery was the most neglected phase of post-disaster recovery (PDR). The factors hindering successful transition following short-term recovery activities are lack of following: community-level involvement, local administration and community capacity, disaster governance, different stakeholders and coordination, information and knowledge management.

This paper examines the long-term disaster recovery after the 2010 super floods in three districts of Sindh. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to investigate the factors in other areas for different types of disasters.

These findings are critical to planning future post-disaster recoveries in the region. It also provides a basis to investigate other types of disasters.

The transition of recovery into long-term phase has never been investigated before. The recovery phase is an opportune time to incorporate strategies for building back better, resilience, mitigation and preparedness. A PDR that does not incorporate these strategies in the long-term leaves affected communities in more vulnerable conditions for future disasters.

Major hazard organizations are dealing with hazardous material exceeding the threshold quantity. Major hazard organizations are relatively secure areas and cannot fail from single error. However, failure of an organization to control hazardous material usually results in a technological man‐made disaster. The conditions preceding the onset of technological man‐made disaster are collectively called the technological man‐made disaster precondition phase “incubation period”. A model has been developed representing the technological man‐made disaster pre‐condition phase where it focuses on the origin of the technological man‐made disaster. The model was based on detailed analysis of four technological man‐made disasters at major hazard installations in Malaysia.

With the recognition of the necessity for effectively and successfully managing natural disaster projects for saving human lives and preventing and minimizing the impacts of disasters on socio‐economic developmental progress, this paper seeks to propose a balanced scorecard (BSC) approach in order to maximize the possibilities of desired outcomes from projects.

The BSC approach, which has been widely accepted and used in business organizations, can be adapted for natural disaster management projects. An application of this BSC approach to disaster management projects is discussed with a real flood disaster management project.

In the BSC approach, performance measures should be established in four areas: donors' perspective; the target beneficiaries' perspective; the internal process perspective; and the learning and innovation perspectives. Measures for four areas in each of the five generic phases of managing natural disasters (i.e. preparedness, early warning, emergency relief, rehabilitation and recovery) allow project managers to identify problem areas and areas for further improvements. Ensuring success in one phase will lead to success in the subsequent phase because success in one phase will be the input for the following phase.

In general, this study demonstrates an application of the balanced scorecard approach to natural disaster management projects and, in particular, to a real flood disaster management in Hat Yai Municipality, Southern Thailand. Future research might focus on other types of natural disaster.

Using the balanced scorecard, project managers can understand problem areas as well as areas for improvement in current projects, which would enhance their abilities to take corrective actions that ensure and maximize the possibilities of successful outcomes from implemented projects.

This paper proposes the BSC approach for successfully managing natural disaster projects. This management approach can be applied to various natural disaster management projects.

This study aims at investigating the evolution of disaster management by identifying the different phases it has gone through over time, and laying a ground for the next generation of disaster studies that focus on value-creating and value-adding activities.

An extensive review of the existing literature was made to develop an understanding of the evolution of disaster management. This study does not aim at assessing the tools or techniques used; rather it aims at identifying the major developments that took place over time.

Disaster management is a dynamic process. It has encountered/experienced different evolutionary phases that indicate that it has been developing over time. It continues to evolve until today as long as disasters occur. The nature and complexity of disasters are also changing. Most importantly, what seemed to be a practical approach for managing disasters yesterday might not fit for the use of today or tomorrow.

Understanding the evolution of disaster management mirrors the evolution of mankind and the ways people survived major incidents. As life itself evolves, disasters will continue to evolve which subsequently triggers the need for broader management insight to cope with.

This study traces the evolution of disaster management and the development of research and practice in this field over time. The existing literature rarely addresses the uniqueness of individual disasters and the need to treat them differently even the recurrent ones. To the best of the author’s knowledge, there is no single study that attempted to capture the evolution of disaster management during the 20th century until today. This study aims to achieve this goal.

The way that disasters are managed, or indeed mis-managed, is often represented diagrammatically as a “disaster cycle”. The cyclical aspects of the disaster (risk) management concept, comprised of numerous operational phases, have, in recent years, been criticised for conceptualising and representing disasters in an overly simplistic way that typically starts with a disaster “event” – and subsequently leads onto yet another disaster. Such cyclical thinking has been proven to not be very useful for the complexities associated with understanding disasters and their risks. This paper aims to present an alternative conceptualisation of the Disaster Risk Management phases, in a way that can better factor in the underlying root causes that create differential levels of vulnerability.

This is a conceptual paper developed, through a review of the literature and discussions between the authors, as a counterpoint to the pervasive “disaster cycle”.

The “Disaster Risk Management (DRM) Helix” is presented as an alternative way of conceptualising the DRM phases. The helictical conceptualisation of DRM phases presented in this paper is intentionally presented to start a discussion (rather than as an end point) on how best to move away from the constraints of the “disaster cycle”.

It is envisaged that the helictical conceptualisation of DRM can be suitably malleable to include important factors such as temporal considerations and the underlying root causes that create differential levels of vulnerability. It is, thus, the intention that the DRM Helix can provide a catalyst for exciting discussions and future adaptations of the diagram that can better capture the dynamic (non-cyclical) nature of disasters and their root causes.

An understanding of the “AS-IS” stage of a relief operation is the basis for further action in humanitarian supply chain management. The purpose of this paper is to develop a toolbox called the Humanitarian Supply Chain Assessment Tool (HumSCAT). This toolbox is comprised of a set of basic tools which can be classified into each phase of disaster relief.

The HumSCAT is proposed by paralleling frequently used tools in commercial supply chains with the objectives and characteristics of relief phases. A case study was used to validate the HumSCAT along with six tools provided in the preparation phase.

The HumSCAT consists of seven tools in the preparation phase, nine tools in the response phase and ten tools in the recovery phase. The case study illustrates how to use the HumSCAT and the six tools. The latter were found to be useful for improving the relief chain.

The list of tools is not exclusive. Other tools might be applicable as long as they meet the objectives and characteristics of the phase. A tool should be adjusted accordingly to the contexts. Tools in other phases should be validated in future research.

The HumSCAT may serve as a reference toolbox for practitioners. Its output can be used for further designing of the “TO-BE” status of humanitarian relief chains.

The HumSCAT is proposed as a toolbox for academics and practitioners involved in humanitarian supply chains.

The increasing risk of natural disasters is challenging humanitarian actors to create resilient disaster management systems. However, the role of the private sector in disaster management operations (DMOs) is not as prominent as the role played by (inter)governmental agencies. This article aims to investigate the relationship of collaboration and resilience in disaster management supply networks (DMSNs).

Supply network resilience criteria were defined as robustness, flexibility, velocity and visibility based on the literature review. DMSN capabilities were identified characterising each resilience criterion through the development of the Collaboration–Resilience (COLRES) Analysis Framework for DMSNs. This theoretical model was then applied to an empirical case study in the Philippines using semi-structured interviews for data gathering.

A total of 46 cross-sector collaboration activities were identified across four disaster management phases and linked to the resilience criteria. A causal analysis of each collaboration activity and its outcome was conducted to identify relationships between collaboration types and resilience constructs. Based on these results, patterns were identified, and dependencies between collaboration and resilience were defined. Collective DMSN resilience (DMSNRES) enabled by existing cross-sector collaboration activities was evaluated against a future disaster scenario to identify resilience gaps. These gaps were used to recognise new cross-sector collaboration opportunities, thereby illustrating the continuous process of resilience building.

This research provides new insights on how private sector is involved within a DMOs through collaboration with the government and other NGOs. It augments existing literature on private sector involvement in DMOs where common perception is that the sector is only involved in short-term response and recovery activities. This study finds that the private sector can be operationally involved not just in post-disaster activities, but also in mitigation and preparation phases as well. This then sets a new baseline for further research on private sector involvement within DMOs. As this study provided a novel framework to analyse collaboration activities and its impact to DMSN resilience, future work could be done by applying the model to further cases such as other countries'. DMSNs, or to more specific contexts such as inter-organisational collaborations rather than big sectors. A more detailed assessment method against a future disaster will prove relevance for the model in providing practical insights on how resilience can be built in DMSNs.

This research proposed a novel DMSN collaboration-resilience (COLRES) model (Figure 11) to analyse existing processes in preparation for specific disasters. Practitioners may be able to use this model with the goal of identifying resilience gaps to fill and continuously improve their processes. The model also provides practitioners the lens to improve processes with the perspective on collaboration to complement government and NGO efforts and expertise with those of the private sector. For the private sector perspective, this research provides new insights on how they can be more involved with the community to provide more sustainable and long-term contributions to the society.

With disasters becoming more complex and frequent by the day and as humanitarian actors focus on improving their expertise, the need for every piece of the society to contribute to disaster risk reduction is continuously intensified. This research shows that each sector of the society can take part in disaster management operations to reduce unpredictability, lives impacted and increase speed of response and recovery. Each sector of the society can be of great contribution not only during post-disaster response and recovery but also during pre-disaster mitigation and preparedness phase. As such, this research echoes the call for everyone to be involved in disaster risk reduction and mitigation as a way of life.

This research ultimately finds that cross-sector collaboration builds resilience in DMSNs through capacity building, redundancy sourcing, information reliability and logistics responsiveness. This study shows that the private sector is able to go beyond existing short-term partnerships by participating in the 46 collaboration activities identified across four disaster management phases in order to build resilience in DMSNs.

Natural disasters often destroy hundreds of homes that leave victims homeless and leads to community displacement. In the USA, such disasters happen over 60 times per year. This leads to logistical and contractual nightmare for the planning agencies and political/community leaders required to provide shelter for displaced citizens. One of the most important challenges for the policy makers and aid providers is to make homes available to the homeless victims in as short a period as possible. Temporary shelter is costly and often excessively delayed. Also quality and long stay (more than four years for the Katrina victims) in temporary shelter affected victims both mentally and physically. The aim of this paper is to propose a strategic framework that assists responsible entities to provide housing to the disaster victims in a short period of time, for example to construct 200 homes in 30 days after disaster (representing a subdivision).

The main objective of this research is to perform feasibility study of implementing such a strategy that would enable agencies to provide better solutions for post disaster housing assistance. This paper mainly explains four phases that constitute the development of the strategic framework. The first two phases of the framework carry out pre‐disaster planning and establish relationships among the participating entities. Whereas, the third phase includes simulating post disaster processes identified in the previous phases to evaluate response trade‐offs. The last phase is about the real implementation of this strategy after disaster that also incorporates its outcomes and experiences into previously planned strategy.

It was found through second part of research, simulation studies, that such a strategy can be prepared before the disaster and activated when needed. This would drastically reduce the housing response time.

This would help in improving the strategy for future disasters. Successful execution would facilitate opportunities to reduce stress for the victims and encourage faster recovery.