The papers in this special section focus on modeling and simulation in disaster and emergency management The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 has wrought damage globally to a degree that is totally unprecedented in human history Within three months that the first known death from the illness caused by the so-called novel Coronavirus was reported by state media in China on the 11th of January 2020, close to 1 8 million people worldwide had tested positive, with more than 100,000 deaths reported By the time the pandemic will have been declared to be under control, millions more are expected to have been infected and tens (possibly hundreds) of thousands more will have perished as a result of the disease Not only are the numbers of COVID-19 infected people and deaths staggering Economies throughout the world have suffered tremendously, with many companies forced to shut down, or at the very least significantly scale down, their production of goods and services as a result of the need for social distancing and self-isolation required to prevent the unmitigated transmission of the disease All this has led to hundreds of millions worldwide losing their employment or other sources of livelihood Governments of all nations, large and small, developed and underdeveloped, have needed to pump into their economy and onto their struggling citizens whatever financial resources they could manage to generate [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management is the property of IEEE and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use This abstract may be abridged No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract (Copyright applies to all Abstracts )
Editorial: Special Section on Modeling and Simulation in Disaster and Emergency Management