3. Collection and Distribution of Disaster Information

3. Collection and Distribution of DisasterInformation
The ADRC has been disseminating many different types of information related to disaster risk
reduction on its website (http://www.adrc.asia) aiming at ensuring appropriate disaster response,
mitigation, and preparedness activities

3-1. Disaster Risk Reduction Activities of MemberCountries
In fiscal year 2012, as in the previous year, ADRC collected disaster risk reduction-related
information on member countries through the following methods:

3-1-1. Information Provided from ADRC Member Countries
Other than the voluntary provision from the member countries, ADRC collected the information
on systems, plans, and specific measures of each country’s disaster reduction as well as situations ofongoing natural disasters through Visiting Researchers.

(1) Collecting Information through Participation in International Conferences
ADRC collected the relevant information by participating in international meetings such as 5th
Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (AMCDRR). In addition, ADRC, incollaboration with the Japanese Government (Cabinet Office), held the Asian Conference onDisaster Reduction in Kobe, Japan on 23 January 2013 in order to discuss and share progresses,
issues, and challenges in implementing disaster risk reduction polices.

(2) Utilization of Internet
Taking advantage of internet, ADRC has been collecting related information efficiently. Internetwill 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.

(3) Disaster Risk Reduction Activities of Member Countries
In fiscal year 2011, ADRC continued gathering information on the disaster risk reduction
systems of member countries through requests to them, field surveys, international conferences,and internet. Furthermore, ADRC updated country reports in cooperation with Visiting
Researchers.
Table 3-1-1-1 lists the reports provided by counterparts in member countries. All these reports
are available on ADRC website. Over recent years, disaster risk management organizations of7many countries have been actively promoting information dissemination over the internet.
Therefore, the ADRC website has direct links to these websites which offer access to the latest
information.
Table 3-1-1-1

List of reports from ADRC member countries

Country

Year prepared

Armenia

2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2010, 2012

Azerbaijan

2011

Bangladesh

1998, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2010, 2011

Bhutan2008

Cambodia

1998, 1999, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006

China

1998, 1999, 2005, 2006, 2012

India

1998, 1999, 2002, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2012

Indonesia

1998, 1999, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2012Japan

1998, 1999, 2002, 2005, 2006, 2012

Kazakhstan

1998, 1999, 2002, 2005, 2006

Republic of Korea

1998, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2006, 2008

Kyrgyz Republic

2005, 2006, 2012

Lao PDR

1998, 1999, 2003, 2005, 2006

Malaysia

1998, 1999, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2011

Mongolia

1998, 1999, 2002, 2005, 2010, 2011

Myanmar

2002, 2005, 2006

Nepal

1998, 1999, 2005, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2011

Pakistan2005, 2006, 2009

Papua New Guinea

1998, 1999, 2005, 2006

Philippines

1998, 1999, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012

Russian Federation

1998, 1999, 2003, 2005, 2006

Singapore

1998, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006

Sri Lanka

1998, 1999, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2011

Tajikistan

1998, 1999, 2003, 2005, 2006

Thailand

1998, 1999, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012

Uzbekistan

1998, 1999, 2005, 2006

Viet nam

1998, 1999, 2005, 2006

Yemen

2009, 20128

3. Collection and Distribution of Disaster Information

Country Reports includes the following topics provided by each member country.
I. Natural Hazards in the Country
1.1 Natural Hazards Likely to Affect the Country village
1.2 Recent Major Disasters(basic data of disasters, damage situation, response & recovery info)
II. Disaster Management System
2.1 Administration System
2.2 Legal System and Framework
2.3 Structure of Disaster Management
2.4 Priorities on Disaster Risk Management
III. Disaster Management Strategy, Policy and Plan
IV. Budget Size on National Level
V. Progress of the Implementation of Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA)
VI. Recent Major Projects on Disaster Risk Reduction
VII. ADRC Counterpart

The followings are excerpts from the Country Reports of Armenia (Fig. 3-1-1-1).

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Fig. 3-1-1-2Country Report of Armenia (excerpt)

103. Collection and Distribution of Disaster Information

3-1-2. Natural Disaster Data Book
Records of past natural disaster are important data to design, review, survey and analyze disasterprevention planning. ADRC has analyzed on disaster impacts based on the data of EM-DAT
provided by CRED, Brussels, after the agreement of data utilization were confirmed between two.
For instance, “20th Century Data Book on Asian Natural Disasters”, and its revision released inJuly 2000 and August 2002 respectively featured disasters which hit its member countries. As from2002, as a summary of disaster data for one year, “Data Book on Asian Natural Disaster for thisyear” has been released on a yearly basis to provide multi players such as policy decision makers,
researchers, DRR NGO officials useful information.
This section introduces the excerpts from Natural Disaster Data Book 2011, which covers
disaster trend per year / type.
According to EM-DAT, 196 natural disasters occurred in 2011 worldwide, killing about 28,800
people and affecting over 85 million people. The estimated amount of economic damage cameclose to US$290 billion. In 2011, there were two large-scale disasters in Asia; the Great East Japan
Earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Japan and flood in Thailand, which constituted 70.5% and2.8% of the world fatalities while 72.5% and 13.8 % of the world economic damage respectively.
As a result, Asia made up of 44.4% of the number of disaster occurrence, 82.0% of the number of
the killed, 94.0% of the number of the affected and 88.7% of economic damage (Figure 3-1-2-1,Table 3-1-2 -2).
According to data by disaster type, in flood and storm cases, nos. of occurrence and people
affected was noticeable. Meanwhile as long as the number of people killed and economic damage
are concerned, percentage of earthquake was more than 70% respectively.
Looking at the long-term trend of natural disaster, in 2011, number of disaster occurrence and thenumber of the killed/affected was declined, while economic damage hit highest ever. This isbecause large economic impacts from mega disasters in Japan and Thailand were huge, and,damage from storm and flood is less severe than the average year. .

Fig. 3-1-2-1 Impacts of Natural Disasters by Region, 201111

Table 3-1-2-1 Impacts of Natural Disasters by Region, 2011
ImpactRegion

Occurrence

Killed(share in %)(share in %)AffectedDamage(share in %)(US$ million)(sharein %)Africa45(23.0%)

3,104(10.8%)

740,708(0.9%)

803(0.3%)

Americas49(25.0%)

1,883(6.5%)

4,031,124(4.7%)

22,000(7.6%)

Asia

87(44.4%)

23,646(82.0%)

80,195,914(94.0%)

256,882(88.7%)

Europe5(2.6%)22(0.1%)25,019(0.0%)0(0.0%)

Oceania10(5.1%)181(0.6%)

309,362(0.4%)

10,003(3.5%)

Total

196 (100.0%)

28,836 (100.0%)

85,302,127 (100.0%)

Fig. 3-1-2-2 Disaster Occurrence, 1975-2011

Fig. 3-1-2-3 Number of People Killed, 1975-201112289,688 (100.0%)

3. Collection and Distribution of Disaster Information

3-1-3. Current Status of “GLIDE”
GLIDE is the acronym for the GLobal unique disaster IDEntifier system, in which commonly
formatted but unique numbers are assigned to disasters all over the world. The GLIDE system was
first proposed by ADRC and has been adopted and used by more than 20 internationalorganizations and research institutes.

3-1-3-1. Disaster Information Sharing Using GLIDE Numbers
There are many organizations around the world that design and develop their own disasterdatabases that are freely accessible online. When a disaster occurs, information is distributed overthe Internet not only by organizations in the affected countries but also by organizations and themass media in other countries. Whenever a disaster occurs in any part of the world, ADRC collects
information from websites of relevant organizations and worldwide news agencies, or by sending
e-mails to contact persons in the affected area. Over the course of its experience, ADRC has comeup against several problems in collecting disaster information using these conventional methods,including the following.
(1) Considerable manpower is needed to search the Internet for websites of relevant individualorganizations every time a disaster occurs.
(2) There is no standardized naming protocol for disasters. As many different names are given
to a certain single disaster by various organizations, even search engines such as Google orYahoo sometimes return no results.
(3) Website links may be lost when the structure of particular organization's database or
website is modified.
The GLIDE system offers a solution to these problems. It will significantly improve theefficiency with which information on historical and ongoing disasters can be retrieved fromdatabases and websites.
At the Global Disaster Information Network (GDIN) Conference held in Canberra, Australia in
March 2001, ADRC proposed the development of a standardized coding system for managing
information on disasters around the world. This proposal was accepted for implementation as apilot project by the GDIN. In 2004, glidenumber.net was jointly developed by the ADRC andOCHA ReliefWeb, with technical assistance provided by LaRED. It is designed to issue newGLIDE numbers to disasters immediately after they occur. Moreover, ADRC, the CRED,
IRI/Columbia University, the USAID/OFDA, the WMO, IFRC, UNDP, and ISDR Secretariat haveagreed to use the GLIDE number format as the standard for assigning disaster identification
numbers.

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The GLIDE number format was revised in 2004 as follows:

AA-BBBB-CCCCCC-DDD-EEE
AA: Disaster classification→→→→→→→→BBBB: Year of occurrence(4-digit numeric figure)
CCCCCC: Serial number by year
DDD: Country code
(ISO code. e.g., JPN for Japan)
EEE: Region code(e.g., 013 for Tokyo)

Drought
Heat Wave
Cold Wave
Tropical Cyclone
Extratropical Cyclone
TornadoViolent Wind
Severe Local StormFlood
Flash Flood
Land Slide
Snow Avalanche
Mud Slide
VolcanoEarthquake
FireTsunami
Storm Surge
Epidemic
Insect Infestation
Wild Fire
OthersComplex Emergency
TechnologicalDR
HW
CWTC
EC
TOVW
STFL
FF
LSAVMSVO
EQFRTSSSEPINWFOTCEACFig 3-3-3-1 Structure of GLIDE

The local code at the end can be added for the convenience of user countries in organizing theirnational databases. This format is still in use among GLIDE-issuing organizations.
Databases that incorporate GLIDE numbers will have the following advantages:(1) A parameterized search function allows user organizations to easily connect pieces ofdisaster information archived by various organizations.
(2)

A search engine, developed to focus on particularly important information for userorganizations, allows a one-stop search and display of all the necessary data, eliminating theneed to conduct additional searches for data independently archived by individualorganizations.

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