| dc.description.abstract | A pandemic springing from an epidemic is a unique type of disaster that repeatedly haunts humanity by causing large losses of life and economic devastation. The coverage, duration and dynamic nature of these disasters make managing them an extreme challenge, which highlights the need for technological solutions to aid management processes. The COVID-19 pandemic has, consequently, seen a rise in epidemic and pandemic management research. Many recent studies have attempted to identify management challenges, and some have suggested technological applications to overcome some of these challenges. However, to date, no study has attempted to address research gaps. Therefore, in the current work, the first step in finding suitable solutions to as-yet unaddressed pandemic management challenges was to collate and closely examine academic literature describing the nature of these challenges. Our examination showed that most management challenges are, in fact, knowledge- and data-related, which means they can be addressed by modern technologies, such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and radio frequency identification (RFID). We then surveyed the literature for IoT/RFID-based solutions to the challenges of managing epidemics and pandemics. The results of two literature reviews were subsequently combined with expert opinions to clearly identify recurrent management issues. Finally, IoT/RFID-based solutions were suggested as solutions, and the solutions were evaluated by experts in fields related to disaster management. This thesis contributes to the body of knowledge in this area by classifying and defining pandemic management challenges. Furthermore, this study presents solutions to the challenges using a novel framework — the pandemic management cycle (PMC) — that we developed specifically to help practitioners successfully manage this type of disaster. | en_NZ |
