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 2014, as in the previous year, ADRC collected disaster risk reduction-related
information on member countries through the following methods.

3-1-1-1. 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).

3-1-1-2. Collecting Information through Participation inInternational Conferences
ADRC collected relevant information regarding progress of Hyogo Framework for Action(HFA), latest DRR activities by participating in international conferences such as the 6th Asian
Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (AMCDRR). In addition, ADRC, incollaboration with the Government of Japan (Cabinet Office), held the Asian Conference onDisaster Reduction in Sendai, Japan on 15 March 2015 in order to discuss and share
progresses, issues, and challenges in implementing disaster risk reduction polices.

103. Collection and Dissemination of Disaster Information

3-1-1-3. Utilization of Internet
Taking advantage of internet, ADRC has been collecting disaster related information
efficiently. Internet will be more important to facilitate technical support and construct disasterinformation databases. The internet also helps ADRC to collect related information provided
by 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 withVisiting Researchers.
Table 3-1-1-1 lists the reports provided by counterparts in member countries. All thesereports are available on ADRC website. Over recent years, disaster risk management
organizations in many countries have been actively promoting information dissemination overthe internet. Therefore, the ADRC website developed 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, 2014

Bangladesh

1998, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2010, 2011, 2013

Bhutan2008, 2013, 2014

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

Japan1998, 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, 2014

Mongolia

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

Myanmar

2002, 2005, 2006, 2013

Nepal

1998, 1999, 2005, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2014

Pakistan2005, 2006, 2009

Papua New Guinea

1998, 1999, 2005, 2006

11

Philippines

1998, 1999, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012,2014

Russia1998, 1999, 2003, 2005, 2006

Singapore

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

Sri Lanka

1998, 1999, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2014

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, 2014

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
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

12

3. Collection and Dissemination of Disaster Information

3-1-2. Natural Disaster Data Book
ADRC publishes analyses on disaster impacts based on the data of EM-DAT provided byCRED, Brussels. For instance, 20th Century 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 Data Book covers disaster characteristics in the world.
This section introduces the excerpts from Natural Disaster Data Book 2013, which covers
regional and disaster-specific issues of the year and long term.
The following Figures 3-1-2-2 to 3-1-2-7 and Tables 3-1-2-1 and 3-1-2-2 depict the results ofanalyses of national disaster and impacts in 2012 and in the long term.
According to EM-DAT recorded in 2013, 361 disaster events occurred, 23,538 people werekilled, more than 99.9 million people were affected and economic damage reached 119 billion
USD.
Similar to 2012, the year 2013 saw Typhoon Haiyan (Typhoon No.30 in Japan) causing largest
impacts, killing 7,986 people, affecting more than 16 million people and damaging 1 billion
USD. Also flooding in India killed 6,054 people and affected 50 million people with economic
damage 1.1 billion USD.
By region, Asia had largest shares in disasteroccurrence (44.6 %), killed people (84.6%), affectedpeople (87.1%) and the amount of damages (49.0%) in2013 as seen in Figure 1-3-2-2 and Table 1-3-2-1.
By disaster type, flood topped in disasteroccurrences (41.3%), people killed (41.7%) andeconomic damage (44.5%). People affected by floodranked the second (32.1%) after storm. On the other
hand, storm shared the second in occurrence, people
killed and economic damage (29.1%, 39.1% and44.0% respectively) (Figure 3-1-2-2, Table3-1-2-1).
Compared with the previous year, in 2013, datashows increase in fatalities and decline in the numbersof disaster occurrences, people affected, and theamount of economic damages.

Fig3-1-2-1 Natural Disaster
Data Book 201313

Fig. 3-1-2-2 Impacts of Natural Disasters by Region 2013

Table 3-1-2-1 Impacts of Natural Disasters by Region 2013
ImpactRegionOccurrence

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%)

14104,275,361 (100.0%)

142,387 (100.0%)

3. Collection and Dissemination 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.
①

Considerable 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 aregiven 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 orwebsite 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 new
GLIDE numbers to disasters immediately after they occur. Moreover, ADRC, the CRED,
IRI/Columbia University, the USAID/OFDA, the WMO, IFRC, UNDP, and ISDR Secretariat
have agreed to use the GLIDE number format as the standard for assigning disaster identification
numbers.

15

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 yearDDD: 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
Fire
TsunamiStorm Surge
Epidemic
Insect Infestation
Wild Fire
OthersComplex Emergency
TechnologicalDR
HWCWTC
EC
TO
VW
STFL
FF
LS
AVMS
VO
EQ
FRTS
SS
EP
IN
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: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
the need to conduct additional searches for data independently archived by individualorganizations.

16

3. Collection and Dissemination of Disaster Information

3-1-3-2. Second meeting of the Expert Group on
Disaster-related Statistics in Asia and the PacificDuring the 3rd WCDRR in Sendai, Japan, the second meeting of the expert group on
Disaster-related Statistics in Asia and the Pacific was held on 17 March 2015 (9:00-17:00) atTohoku University as one of public forum of WCDRR.
Discussion points are as follows;- The Post-2015 framework for disaster risk reduction, the sustainable development goals andthe work of the Expert Group.
- Towards a basic range of disaster statistics in Asia Pacific- Development of regional guidelines for disaster related statistics-Way forward and work plan
Expert Group agrees on its work plan from April 2015 to March 2016
ADRC introduced GLIDE and the Disaster Data Book as ADRC activities. Supporting ADRC
member countries’ development of disaster-related statistics, along with the post-2015
frameworks will be continued by ADRC.

Photo 3-1-3-2 Expert Group Meeting17