2. Information Collection and Offer

2-3. Collection of Information
2-3-1. Methodology
With assistance from its 25 member countries, ADRC has been collecting information on systems,plans, and specific measures of each country’s disaster reduction as well as situation of natural disasters
occurred. ADRC has also been collecting information from related materials, and disaster manager ofvarious countries/organizations, and though Visiting Researchers from ADRC members and UN OCHA
ReliefWeb Office in Kobe.
ADRC will continue collecting and releasing information on the following items mainly:(1) Disaster management systems (legal frameworks, organizations, basic plans, and disastermanagement manuals), (2) Actual cases of disaster countermeasures, (3) Information on natural disasters(descriptions of natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods, cyclones, etc., and resulting damages),(4)Human resources information (disaster reduction administrators, academic experts, internationalorganizations, private companies, NGO members).

2-3-2. Collecting Information from Member Countries
In 2006, as in the previous year, ADRC collected disaster reduction-related information on member
countries through the following methods:(1) Information provided from ADRC member countries
ADRC has made a kind request once a year to its member vountries, asking them for providing
information on systems, plans, and specific measures of each country’s disaster reduction as well as
situation of natural disasters occurred.

(2) Asian Conference on Disaster Reduction 2007
Asian Conference on Disaster Reduction (ACDR 2007) on June 25-27, 2007 in Astana, Kazakhstan,
was another good opportunity for member countries, advisor countries, UN agencies and NGOs toprovide updated information. ACDR 2007 will attract many disaster-related international organizations,
who will make presentations on the progress of implementation of HFA (Hyogo Framework for Action).

(3) Use of WWW (World Wide Web)Taking advantage of WWW, ADRC has been collecting related information efficiently. WWW
will be more important to facilitate technical support and construct disaster information databases.
The Internet also helps ADRC to collect related information provided by academic research
institutions and international organizations. ADRC has proposed the use of common disaster IDs.
The disaster database (EM-DAT) run by the CRED of Louvain Catholic University in Belgium
provides access to statistical data of disasters all over the world via the Internet. While the EM-DATserves as a statistical database, the OCHA provides information on natural disasters and reliable
information on disaster countermeasures and management via its “ReliefWeb” site on the Internet inorder to support humanitarian activities during disasters. Use of common disaster IDs for thedisaster reduction information will facilitate easy access to information of both the EM-DAT and theOCHA.
ADRC intends to further promote the GLIDE (GLobal unique disaster IDEntifier number) project,in order to facilitate effective integration of information disseminated by many disastermanagement-related organizations. ADRC developed GLIDEnumber.net (http://glidenumber.net/)
for registration of all new disasters and distribution of new GLIDE numbers since May 2004.

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