A Framework for Using Road Network Centrality for Tsunami Evacuation Planning Amongst a Pandemic Outbreak

The COVID-19 pandemic, which transmits as a contagious respiratory disease (Coronavirus 2 SARSCoV-2), made a rapid transformation in the daily functions required to adhere to health and safety guidelines, especially with regards to the physical distancing measures. During this period, the emergency management tasks, especially for rapid onset hazards, are left with ambiguity or confusion when adapting to the physical distancing measures. The present pandemic preparedness guidelines for
Tsunami issued by the Indian Ocean Tsunami Information Centre (ICG/IOTWMS, 2020) exemplify this matter as the guidelines state that a tsunami evacuation order should prioritize over covid-19 stayat-home advice when evacuations are required. Many countries where the COVID-19 general reproduction rate (R) is high are found highly susceptible to other natural hazards, including earthquakes, cyclones, floods, wildfires, etc. (Ashraf, 2021). However, as the present disaster management guidelines, including tsunami evacuation, are not integrated with pandemic preparedness guidelines, the risk of sudden spikes of COVID-19 cases and fatalities following the incidents of other natural disasters during a pandemic is identified to be significantly high (Hariri-Ardebili, 2020). Accordingly, the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak has caused the emergency management services in the disaster management discipline to be prepared with extra precautions regarding health and safety and physical distancing measures (Ishiwatari et al., 2020). Especially during the rapid onset hazards, the fast and mass movements can cause to accelerate the transmission of the COVID-19 disease and develop post-disaster pandemic clusters in the relief centers. Therefore, identifying a novel approach to manage community evacuation and relief services for rapid onset hazards during a pandemic outbreak is considered as an urgent need in the present emergency management plans.