3. Collection and Dissemination of Disaster
Information
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 Member
Countries
With assistance from its 30 member countries, the Asian Disaster Reduction Center (ADRC)
has been collecting information on systems, plans, and specific measures of each country’s
disaster risk reduction as well as the situation of natural disasters. ADRC has also been collecting
information from related materials, various countries/organizations and through Visiting
Researchers from the ADRC member countries and UNOCHA Office in Kobe.
ADRC will continue collecting and sharing information on the following items mainly:
1) Disaster management systems (legal frameworks, organizations, basic plans, and disastermanagement manuals), 2) Experiences of disaster response, and 3) Information on naturaldisasters (descriptions of natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods, cyclones, etc., andresulting damages).

3-1-1. Information Collection from Member Countries
In fiscal year 2013, as in the previous year, ADRC collected disaster risk reduction-related

information on member countries through the following methods.
(1) Information Provided from ADRC Member Countries
Besides the voluntary provision from the member countries, ADRC collected theinformation on systems, plans, and specific measures of each country’s disaster reduction as
well as situations of ongoing natural disasters through Visiting Researchers (VR).
(2) Collecting Information through Participation in International Conferences
ADRC collected relevant information by participating in international conferences such as
the 1st Executive Committee of 6th Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction(AMCDRR). In addition, ADRC, in collaboration with the Government of Japan (CabinetOffice), held the Asian Conference on Disaster Reduction in Tokyo, Japan from 4 to 6February 2014 in order to discuss and share progresses, issues, and challenges in implementing
disaster risk reduction polices.
(3) Utilization of Internet
Taking advantage of internet, the ADRC has been collecting disaster related information
efficiently. Internet will be more important to facilitate technical support and construct disaster
information databases. The internet also helps ADRC to collect related information provided83. Collection and Distribution of Disaster Informationby academic research institutions and international organizations.
In fiscal year 2013, ADRC continued gathering information on the disaster risk reduction
systems of member countries through information requests, field surveys, international
conferences, and internet. Furthermore, ADRC updated country reports in cooperation with
Visiting Researchers.
Table 1-2-1-1 lists the reports provided by counterparts in member countries. All these reports
are available on ADRC website. Over recent years, disaster risk management organizations inmany countries have been actively promoting information dissemination over the internet.
Therefore, the ADRC website developed direct links to these websites which offer access to thelatest 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, 2013

Bhutan2008, 2013

Cambodia

1998, 1999, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2013

China

1998, 1999, 2005, 2006, 2012

India

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

Indonesia

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

Iran2013

Japan

1998, 1999, 2002, 2005, 2006, 2012

Kazakhstan

1998, 1999, 2002, 2005, 2006

Korea

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

Kyrgyzstan

2005, 2006, 2012

Laos

1998, 1999, 2003, 2005, 2006

Malaysia

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

Maldives

2013

Mongolia

1998, 1999, 2002, 2005, 2010, 2011, 2013

Myanmar

2002, 2005, 2006, 2013

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

Russia1998, 1999, 2003, 2005, 2006

Singapore

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

Sri Lanka

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

9Tajikistan

1998, 1999, 2003, 2005, 2006

Thailand

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

Uzbekistan

1998, 1999, 2005, 2006, 2013

Vietnam

1998, 1999, 2005, 2006

Yemen

2009, 2012

Country Reports include 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 and recovery information)
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. Counterparts of ADRC

10

3. Collection and Distribution of Disaster Information

3-1-2. Natural Disaster Data Book
ADRC publishes analyses on disaster impacts based on the data of EM-DAT provided by theCentre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED), Brussels. For instance, 20thCentury Data Book on Asian Natural Disasters, and its revision released in 2000 and 2002
respectively featured disasters which hit its member countries while annual Natural Disaster DataBook covers disaster characteristics in the world.
This section introduces the excerpts from Natural Disaster Data Book 2012, which covers
regional and disaster-specific issues of the year and long term.
According to EM-DAT recorded in 2012, 328 disaster events occurred, 10,783 people werekilled, more than 104 million people were affected and economic damage reached 142billion
USD.
In 2012, Typhoon Bopha (Typhoon No.24 in Japan) brought about largest impacts, killing
1,900 people, affecting more than 6 million people and damaging 1.7 billion USD. Also several
floods in China affected 17 million people in July and caused economic damage 8 billion USD inNovember.
In 2012, Asia had largest shares in disaster occurrence(39.3 %), fatalities (55.9%) and affected people (69.2%)
while Americas topped in the amount of damages(61.1%) followed by Asia’s 23.0% (Figure 3-1-2-2 andTable 3-1-2-1). This is attributed to severe storms
including hurricanes and droughts in the United States.
Regarding disaster types, flood topped in disasteroccurrences (36.9%), the number of killed and affected(31.6% and 58.6% respectively). On the other hand,storm shared highest in economic damage (52.8%).
Compared with the previous year, the year 2012 saw
decline in the numbers of disaster occurrences, people
killed and affected, and the amount of economicdamages.
In the medium and long term, the number of disasteroccurrences is declining trend though the other indicesshow increasing trend.

11Fig. 3-1-2-1 National Disaster
Data Book 2012

Fig. 3-1-2-2 I mpacts of Natural Disasters by Region 2012

ImpactRegion

Occurrence

KilledAffected(share in %)(share in %)(share in %)Damage (US$ million)(share in %)Africa63(19.2%)

2,489(23.1%)

26,532,108(25.4%)

1,084(0.8%)

Americas68(20.7%)

1,051(9.7%)

4,749,370(4.6%)

87,063(61.1%)

Asia

129(39.3%)

6,032(55.9%)

72,178,335(69.2%)

32,687(23.0%)

Europe57(17.4%)

1,111(10.3%)

557,319(0.5%)

20,346(14.3%)11(3.4%)100(0.9%)258,229(0.2%)

1,208(0.8%)

OceaniaTotal

328 (100.0%)

10,783 (100.0%)

104,275,361 (100.0%)

Table 3-1-2-1 Impacts of Natural Disasters by Region 2012

12142,387 (100.0%)

3. Collection and Distribution of Disaster Information

3-1-3. Disaster Information Sharing Using GLIDE Numbers
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.
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 bysending e-mails to contact persons in the affected area. Over the course of its experience, ADRC
has come up against several problems in collecting disaster information using these conventional
methods, including the following.
①Considerable manpower is needed to search the Internet for websites of relevant
individual organizations 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 or Yahoo 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 the efficiency
with which information on historical and ongoing disasters can be retrieved from databases andwebsites.
At the Global Disaster Information Network (GDIN) Conference held in Canberra, Australia inMarch 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 a pilot
project by the GDIN. In 2004, glidenumber.net was jointly developed by the ADRC and OCHA
ReliefWeb, with technical assistance provided by LaRED. It is designed to issue new GLIDE numbers
to disasters immediately after they occur. Moreover, ADRC, the CRED, IRI/Columbia University, theUSAID/OFDA, the WMO, IFRC, UNDP, and ISDR Secretariat have agreed to use the GLIDE
number format as the standard for assigning disaster identification numbers.

13

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 SlideVolcano
Earthquake
FireTsunami
Storm Surge
Epidemic
Insect Infestation
Wild FireOthers
Complex Emergency
TechnologicalDR
HWCWTCEC
TO
VWSTFLFFLSAVMS
VO
EQ
FRTS
SS
EPIN
WF
OTCEACFig 3-1-3-1 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:①A 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
the need to conduct additional searches for data independently archived by individualorganizations.

14