**2. Literature review**

#### **2.1 Research on infectious diseases during disasters**

Infectious diseases are often prevalent after the occurrence of natural disasters [5]. There are many cases of infectious diseases and psychological stress caused by a

## *Disaster Management Process Approach: Case Study by BOSS for Disaster Response under… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.94954*

massive change in the living environment due to the way of life in evacuation centers [6], food shortages, and unsanitary environments increase the risk of infectious diseases [5]. Also, an unspecified number of people live together in evacuation centers, but the area per person is small, and the rate of infections spread is high in dense evacuation centers [7]. Medical workers get tired during disasters, and they may be affected, and insufficient medical resources provision compared with typical phases contributes to the spread of infection [6].

There were many acute respiratory symptoms and acute gastrointestinal symptoms in the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake disaster [8]. During the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake disaster, infectious gastroenteritis due to Norovirus was prevalent [9]. After natural disasters, although not limited to Japan, the outbreak of infectious diseases such as aspiration pneumonia, skin, and wound infections occurred during the 2004 tsunami disaster in Indonesia [10], and the hurricane Katrina in 2005. At that time, Norovirus infection spread in evacuation centers [11].

#### **2.2 Research on disaster response work**

**Keywords:** BOSS, process management, disaster management, disaster response,

COVID-19 is prevalent all over the world. Different countries applied a largescale lockdown [1], and although the lockdown is currently relaxed and economic activities have started again, the expected second wave of infection has occurred.

In Japan, a disaster-prone country, there is concern about the COVID-19 as it spreads. Particularly in recent years, disasters such as the 2011 Tohoku-Pacific Ocean Earthquake-tsunami disaster, the 2016 Kumamoto Earthquake disaster, and the 2018 massive rain disaster in western Japan have become more severe and frequent.

It is necessary to manage the entire disaster response processes in such a situation. Also, it is essential to manage the disaster response work process and effectively communicate the disaster response work so that there is no duplication,

Regarding the operation of shelters among various disasters, schools and public halls become shelters for many displaced residents [3, 4], and various operations may coincide with the potential high risk of infection among the crowded residents. In the current COVID-19, outbreaks of infectious diseases at shelters can occur. There is currently no mention of the Basic Act on Disaster Countermeasures in Japan requiring improved living conditions in evacuation centers, such as distributing food, clothing, medicines, and healthcare services (Article 86–6). Therefore, there is an urgent need to establish an evacuation center management system that

As there is a concern that the COVID-19 outbreak will result in a lack of human and physical resources, the following five components are essential for sufficient disaster response work: (1) Standard workflow for disaster response, (2) Information sharing and distribution to understand the situation of dispersed evacuation centers, (3) Effective allocation and management of human resources for various kinds of situations, (4) Information management and distribution of materials and equipment, (5) Continuous follow-up on measures/policies against infectious diseases. Regarding the standard workflow for disaster response, research on standardization and systematization of disaster response has been conducted to realize effective disaster response. The author developed a Business Operation Support System (BOSS) for effective disaster management. BOSS is a workflow system with a database that summarizes disaster response works in a workflow chart.

In this study, the BOSS was used to create a comprehensive workflow focus on shelter management for COVID-19, and the created workflow was verified in the situation of the scenario disaster. In particular, we compared the responses for shelter management with the BOSS or without the BOSS (with a conventional paper manual) and analyzed the effect of using BOSS. This study verified shelter man-

Infectious diseases are often prevalent after the occurrence of natural disasters [5]. There are many cases of infectious diseases and psychological stress caused by a

agement operations in Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture.

**2.1 Research on infectious diseases during disasters**

**2. Literature review**

**100**

rework, or waiting by concerning human resources in an organization.

COVID-19

**1. Introduction**

Re-expansion occurred [2], and it has continued.

*Natural Hazards - Impacts, Adjustments and Resilience*

incorporates measures against infectious diseases.

Local governments often create manuals as a prevention measure. Since many disaster response works are performed in parallel and complicated activities, omissions occur in manuals [12]. Due to detailed descriptions [13], many studies have been conducted to clarify effective manual creation methods. Also, [14, 15] clarified the effects of the new system replacing manuals in the form of empirical experiments. From the operational perspective, according to [16, 17], the actual disaster response work is quantitatively analyzed.

However, although all of these analyzes actual disaster response, the effects of documents such as manuals created in advance are not mentioned.

Therefore, in this study, using an evacuation shelter case as an example, shelter operation using the BOSS under COVID-19 was conducted to quantitatively clarify the effect of the BOSS by comparing the evacuation shelter operation manual (with or without the BOSS).
