Abstract
Facilities management along with health care are two important aspects in controlling the spread of infectious diseases with regard to controlling the outbreak of global COVID-19 pandemic. Hence, with the increasing outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of examining the relationship between the built environment and the outbreak of infectious diseases has become more significant. The aim of the research described in this article is to develop effective infection control and mitigation measures to prevent the transmission of COVID-19 pandemic in the built environment. This study seeks to answer the question of how the facilities management industry can help reduce the transmission of coronavirus. For this purpose, an online survey questionnaire was distributed internationally from 8 April to 25 July, 2020 to collect data from various key stakeholders. The collected data were analyzed by SPSS software. Various methods for the prevention and control of infectious diseases transmission are evaluated through this questionnaire-based survey with regard to their effectiveness for the healthy and safe built environment. These methods were categorized into three groups, including training protocols, operation and maintenance, and design and construction. The results show that all suggested methods have a positive effect on all types of buildings. These methods have an equal effect on low-risk buildings, while for high and very high-risk buildings, training protocols and design and construction measures have the greatest impact. In addition, training protocols and the measures in operation and maintenance will have the greatest effect on medium-risk buildings. The results can help in more rational decision making in relation to controlling the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic in all types of buildings.
Highlights
Sustainable development is a new emerging concept and process in major governments’ policies which plays a key role in the human social development (Rahdari et al, 2016; Sarvari et al, 2019; Pirouz et al, 2020)
From the above and as initially stated, the present study aims to discover effective control and mitigation measures to prevent the transmission of COVID-19 in the built environment
The research described in this paper aims to identify major prevention and mitigation measures that can be adopted in facilities management to effectively combat against the transmission of COVID-19 in buildings
Summary
Sustainable development is a new emerging concept and process in major governments’ policies which plays a key role in the human social development (Rahdari et al, 2016; Sarvari et al, 2019; Pirouz et al, 2020). Sustainable development often combines social, economic, and environmental goals in political decision-making (Sarvari et al, 2020). Emergence of epidemic diseases is one such unforeseen problem with a negative impact on the economy and on social problems; which are both fundamental parts of sustainable development. Such problems can be temporary and transient, they can potentially disrupt the ongoing processes, resulting in adverse effects for many years (Filho et al, 2020; Shen et al, 2020; Yu et al, 2020)
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