2. Establishment of Network in the Asian Region

2-1-4. Collaboration with International Organizations andInitiatives
1） The Center for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED)
CRED managed by the Universite Catholique de Louvain in Belgium is the world’s sole
database containing natural disaster information from all over the world. To gain overall
information of disasters that have occurred in Asia in this century, ADRC entered into aCollaboration Agreement on Disaster Information Collection on November 5, 1999 with CRED.
ADRC and CRED share information with each other to serve as reliable information sources.
At the GDIN Conference in March 2001, CRED, ReliefWeb and ADRC agreed to combine
efforts in promoting GLIDE proposed by ADRC, and the GLIDE project was launched in 2001.
2） Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC)
Established in 1986, ADPC is a non-governmental, regional resource center to support
disaster reduction activities in Asia. Based in Thailand, ADPC is implementing a wide range ofdisaster reduction projects including education and training seminars, on demand consulting andinformation services from various countries and regions, and programs for the improvement oflocal disaster reduction capabilities.
To foster mutual cooperation toward a common goal -disaster reduction-, ADRC and ADPC
signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in June 2001 to make united efforts insegments; International disaster reduction activities such as ISDR, Development of disastermanagement information systems and other disaster reduction technologies; Disaster reduction
training techniques, and Joint projects.
3） Pacific Disaster Center (PDC)
ADRC was invited to serve on the Pacific Disaster Center External Committee which held its
first meeting on 24-25 November 2003 in Maui, Hawaii where PDC is based. The ExternalCommittee discussed the PDCs role in the Asia Pacific Region and Operational Support
Directions of PDC. ADRC provided inputs focusing on the comparative advantage PDC has inthe region and also information on the World Conference on Disaster Reduction in January 2005.
In January 2004, PDC visited ADRC to discuss a possible joint study on Tsunami disaster
reduction in the Pacific.
4） Global Disaster Information Network (GDIN)The Global Disaster Information Network (GDIN) is an initiative that was launched based on aproposal by the US State Department. The main objective of GDIN is to build a sophisticatedinternational framework to provide the right information, in right format, to the right format, tothe right people, in time to make the right decisions.
Prompt information collection is an issue of particular importance for GDIN, and effective
utilization of satellite information and GIS has been investigated as a solution to this issue.
The policy of this initiative is to integrate information from many independent sources forbetter utilization of these resources, which largely agrees to the purposes of ADRCs foundation.
ADRC joined in this initiative at GDIN 2000 in Ankara, Turkey. ADRC participated in thisyears meeting held on 26-28 March, 2004 at Washington DC, USA.
5） World Seismic Safety Initiative (WSSI)
As part of its cooperation with the World Seismic Safety Initiative (WSSI), ADRC invitedlecturers, on behalf of WSSI, to the Public Forum at the United Nation University in October2003 (Prof. Katayama, Prof. Shah. Dr. Meguro), and the Urban Earthquake Disaster
Management Seminar in Mongolia in March 2004 (Mr. Ohya).
In order to promote the principle and ideal of the UN International Decade of Natural Disaster
Reduction (IDNDR) Project, WSSI was established in 1992 as an implementing agency
subordinate to the International Association of Earthquake Engineering (IAEE). WSSI has beenplaying a catalytic role in activities for helping countries to review their earthquake preparedness
strategies. A decade after the establishment of WSSI, the numbers of disasters and affected
population are still expanding rather than diminishing. So are the resulting economic losses.
Under these circumstances, the WSSI Bangkok Workshop was held in December 2003, inviting

４２2. Establishment of Network in the Asian Regiondelegates of countries where WSSI are active and related organizations, in order to analyze thecurrent situations for future activities. There were presentations on earthquake disaster reduction
activities implemented in India, Indonesia, Uganda, Kazakhstan, Thailand, Taiwan, Tajikistan,Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, the Philippines, Vietnam, Myanmar, Mongolia, and Russia. At theWorkshop, there were also reports from Japanese organizations and enterprises, such as JICA,OYO International, Pacific Consultants Inc. (PCI), and Nippon Koei, who were involved inearthquake disaster reduction projects. From ADRC, chief researchers, Mr. Tsunozaki and Mr.
Ishii, attended the Workshop to give presentations on visions for WSSIs future activities.

6） Earthquake and Megacities Initiatives (EMI)ADRC has been strengthening its partnership with Earthquake and Megacities Initiatives(EMI) in the field of urban disaster reduction. For example, ADRC invited EMI study mission inJuly and October 2003, and participated in the Third East Asia Cluster Meeting co-hosted by
EMI and Kobe University on Oct 6-7, 2003.
EMI is an international NGO for urban disaster reduction, and is committed to the Intercity
Project to promote the networking of cities where major earthquake may occur. The network isdivided geographically into the American, Euro-Mediterranean, Oceanic, and East AsianClusters. The East Asian Cluster consists of four cities in the region, i.e., Kobe, Manila,Shanghai, and Seoul.
In addition to the related authorities of the four cities above, regional and international
cooperation organizations were invited to the Third East Asia Cluster Meeting. From ADRC, Dr.
Kurita (Senior Researcher), Ms. Tsunozaki (Senior Researcher) Mr. Yoshinaga (AdministrativeManager) and Mr. Nakamura (Researcher) attended the Meeting to give a presentation ondisaster preparedness activities (e.g., development of tsunami evacuation plans) at community
level.
7） The International Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Seismology (IIEES)IIEES is a governmental institute of Iran. IIEES is providing earthquake information tocountries not only in Western Asia, but also the entire Asian region and the world as a whole.
The activities of IIEES extend from earthquake forecasts, to seminars and symposiums to foster
human resources.
For the mutual cooperation toward common objectives -disaster reduction, in particular
earthquake disaster reduction, in Asia-, ADRC and IIEES signed a Memorandum ofUnderstanding (MOU) in October 2002 to make united efforts in the following segments;
Information exchange regarding studies and researches on natural disasters, Technical services
for public awareness activities (education and training), Promotion of joint researches.

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