2 -2 . S tudy of G L I DE sp read2 -2 -1. W

hat is G L I DEForeword

GLIDE is the acronym of Global unique disasterIn 2018, Asian Disaster Reduction Center (ADRC)
IDEntifier, which gives common but uniquecelebrated
its 20thanniversary.
To thecommemorate
this milestone,
numbersto disasters
all overworld. GLIDE

the AsianConference
on DisasterReduction(ACDR)
was firstly
proposedby ADRCand hasbeen 2018 wasandIslandused inin Hyogo,
more than
20 international
held adopted
on AwajiJapan,
from 30 October to 1organizations, research institutes and so on.
November 2018. It brought together 118 participants, including

ADRC has its own criteria for new GLIDE
representatives of 25 member countries and one advisory
generation. In case of Japan, a new GLIDE numbercountry,
as otherandpartners,
take stock ofwill as
be well
generatedfor observers
a disaster inwhich
eitherto
5 orADRC’sstrategize
andmore achievements
people are killedandor 100or morefuture
people programs
areinjured. In case of Asian countries except Japan, a new GLIDE number will be generated for aactivities.
disaster in which either 10 or more people are killed or 100 or more people are injured.

In addition, ADRC and its member countries welcomed Turkey as a new member in 2018.

2 -2 -2 . History of G L I DE

Turkey is prone to various natural disasters, as are other Asian countries, such as earthquakes,
There are many organizations around the world that design and develop their own disasterfloods, and landslides. In its recent history, a magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck Izmit, located indatabases for free access over the Internet. W hen a disaster occurs, information is distributed overnorthwestern Turkey, and devastating the local community and the region’s economy. I believe
the Internet not only by organizations in the affected countries but also by organizations and thethat Turkey’s
experiences
in managing
naturaldisastersa willcontributecreating
safer
mass media
in other countries.
ADRC,
wheneverdisasteroccurs furtherin any topartof the aworld,
Asia collectswith ADRC
and its membercountries.
of relevant organizations and news agencies all over theinformationfrom websites
world, or by sending e-mails to contact persons in the affected area. The “ ADRC Latest DisasterInformation” on its website is the result of the ADRC' s efforts in collecting information on
ADRC has been promoting activities in the field of information-sharing, human resource
disasters.
development, community capacity-building, and regional cooperation in the Asian region since
B ased on the experiences, ADRC found some problems in collecting disaster information with
its establishment
andconventional
we will further
contributethese activities going forward. In 2019, weabovementionedmethods.
Those toinclude:

will continue to encourage and focus attention on efforts such as GLIDE, to support our work
manpoweris neededwebsites ofrelevanttoindividual(1) Huge
monitoring
the Sendai
Frameworkand tothesearch
SDGs,thetheInternet
VisitingforResearcher
program,improveorganizations
everytimea
disasteroccurs.
disaster risk reduction (DRR) capacity, and public-private partnerships to improve cooperation(2) There exists no standardized naming protocol for disasters. As many different names are
in utilizing effective technologies and affordable solutions in addressing DRR issues.
given to a certain single disaster by various organizations, even search engines such as

Google or Y ahoo sometimes return no hits.
As naturaldisasters
have
no be
boundaries,
appreciate
activeorcooperation(3) W ebsite
links
may
lost whenI sincerely
the structureof theyour
database
homepage acrossof anboundaries organization
and borders istomodified.
advance our work on DRR now and into the future.
GLIDE is a solution to these problems. It significantly improves the efficiency of retrieval ofMarch 2019
information on historical and on-going disasters from databases and the websites.
Masanori Hamada, Chairman
At the Global Disaster Information Network (GDIN) Conference held in Canberra, Australia
AsiancodeDisaster
Reduction
Centerin March 2001, ADRC proposed to develop a standardizedsystemfor managing

77

information on disasters around the world. This proposal, then, was accepted as a pilot project ofForeword

GDIN.

In 2004, glidenumber.net was jointly developed by ADRC and the U NOCHA ReliefW eb withfrom LaRED(disasterCenter
database(ADRC)
in Latin America) in order to issue newIn technical2018, assistance
Asian Disaster
Reduction
GLIDE numbers to disasters immediately after their occurrence. Moreover, ADRC, Centre forcelebrated its 20th anniversary. To commemorate this milestone,
Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED), IRI/ Columbia U niversity, U SAID/ OFDA,
the Asian Conference on Disaster Reduction (ACDR) 2018 was
W orld Meteorological Organization (W MO), the International Federation of Red Cross and Red
held Crescenton AwajiSociety
Island (IFRC),in Hyogo,
Japan,
from Development
30 October toP rogramme1
U nitedNations(U NDP ), and U NISDR

November2018.
It brought
together
118toparticipants,
including
Secretariat(currentU NDRR)
agreeduse the GLIDE
number format as the standard format fordisaster identification
numbers.countries
In present,andJapan
Aerospace
representativesof 25 member
oneadvisoryExploration Agency (JAX A), Joint
Research Centre (JRC/ EC), etc. are utilized to descriptor disasters.
country, as well as other observers and partners, to take stock ofADRC’s achievements and strategize future programs andThe GLIDE number format was revised in 2004 as follows:activities.
AA-B B B B -CCCCCC-DDD-EEE
AA: Disaster classification

In addition, ADRC and its member countries welcomed Turkey as a new member in 2018.
DroughtDRTurkey is prone to various natural
as are otherHWAsian countries, such as earthquakes,
Heat disasters,
W ave

Cold W history,
ave a magnitude CWfloods, and landslides. In its recent
7.4 earthquake struck Izmit, located in

Tropical Cyclone
TC
Extratropical
CycloneEC
northwestern Turkey, and devastating the local community and the region’s economy. I believe
TornadoTO
that Turkey’s experiences in managing
disasters will
Violent W naturalind
VW contribute further to creating a safer
SevereLocal
StormST
Asia with ADRC and its member countries.
FloodFL
Flash FloodFF
Land Slide
LS
ADRC has been promotingSnow
activities
in the field ofAV
information-sharing, human resource
Avalanche
MudSlideMS
development, community capacity-building, and regional cooperation in the Asian region sinceVolcano
VOEarthquake
EQ
its establishment and we will further contribute to these activities going forward. In 2019, weFire
FRwill continue to encourage andTsunami
focus attention on effortsTSsuch as GLIDE, to support our work
StormandSurge
SS
monitoring the Sendai Framework
the SDGs, the Visiting
Researcher program, to improve
EpidemicEP
Insect Infestation
IN partnerships to improve cooperationand public-private
disaster risk reduction (DRR) capacity,
W ild Fire
W F
in utilizing effective technologies
and affordable solutionsOT
in addressing DRR issues.
OthersComplex Emergency
CE
TechnologicalAC

As natural disasters have no boundaries, I sincerely appreciate your active cooperation acrossB B B andB : Y borders
ear of occurrence(4-digitnumericfigure)boundaries
to advanceour work
on DRR
now and into the future.
CCCCCC: Serial number in one year
DDD: Country code (ISO code. e.g., JP N for Japan)
EEE: Local code (e.g., 013 for Tokyo)

March 2019
Masanori Hamada, Chairman
Asian Disaster Reduction Center88

2 . H i g h l i g h ts of 2 0 1 8 / 2 0 1 9The local code at the end could be added for the convenience of the user countries inorganizing their national databases.

Foreword

This format is still in use among GLIDE issuing organizations.

In 2018, Asian Disaster Reduction Center (ADRC)
Databases incorporated GLIDE numbers will have the following advantages:celebrated
its 20th anniversary. To commemorate this milestone,
the Asian Conference on Disaster Reduction (ACDR) 2018 was(1) A parameterized search function allows for user organizations easy connection between
held on Awaji
Islandin Hyogo,
Japan, archived
from 30byOctober1
piecesof disaster
information
various toorganizations.
NovemberIt brought
118
participants,including(2) 2018.
A searchengine, together
developedwith
the focus placedon particularly important information
for userorganizations,allows a one-stopand display of all the necessary data,
representativesof 25
member countries
and onesearchadvisory
eliminatingneed of repeating
furtherfor data
country, as wellas othertheobservers
and partners,
tosearchtake stockof archived separately by individualorganizations.
ADRC’s achievements and strategize future programs andactivities.

2 -2 -3 . Current Challeng es of G L I DE

( 1 ) I s s u es i n O p era t i on
In addition, ADRC and its member countries welcomed Turkey as a new member in 2018.
Different international organizations including the ADRC, U NOCHA Relief W eb, IFRC andTurkey
is prone
to variousentitlednaturaltodisasters,
as arenumbers.
other Asiansuch as earthquakes,
LaRED
are currently
issue GLIDE
Sincecountries,
some organizations
have been

floods,and landslides.
In itsthat
recenta magnitude
7.4a Steering
earthquake
struck Izmit,
incarrying
out operations
werehistory,
not initiallyconceived,
Committeeshouldlocatedbe set up
to discussTurkey,
problems
with
GLIDE operationin community
considerationandof promotionof futureuse, andat thenorthwesternanddevastating
the local
the region’seconomy.
I believesame time, ADRC should consider to set up GLIDE exclusively assigned staff in the office.
that Turkey’s experiences in managing natural disasters will contribute further to creating a safer

Asia with ADRC and its member countries.
( 2 ) S y s t em a t i c i s s u es of G L I D E web s i t e
Glidenumber.net, the web page providing GLIDE numbers, has the following three problems,
ADRC
beenuspromoting
activities
in the improvement.
field of information-sharing, human resource
whichhasrequiresto take measures
for furtherThe firstcommunity
point is thecapacity-building,problem of search engine.
The GLIDE
search inengine
sometimes
leads
todevelopment,
and regionalcooperation
the Asianregionsincethe information
which
doesfurther
not match
the keywords.
its establishment
andwe will
contributeto these activities going forward. In 2019, we
The second point is the strengthening of security measures. In order to protect server system
will continue to encourage and focus attention on efforts such as GLIDE, to support our workfrom various external attacks and to provide stable services, measures such as secure coding andmonitoring
the areSendaiFramework
encryption
urgentlyneeded. and the SDGs, the Visiting Researcher program, to improve

capacity, andofpublic-private
to improvecooperation
disasterTheriskthird
reduction(DRR)
point isthe strengthening
comprehensivepartnerships
service functions.
GLIDE
plays animportantrole todevelop/ operatedisaster damage
whichDRR
mentionedin utilizing
effective
technologies
and affordable
solutionsstatistics
in addressing
issues. at SFDRR.
Expectations for GLIDE are increasing, such as strengthening cooperation with externalorganizations with GCDS and Relief W eb, and updating registered disaster information. It is
As natural disasters have no boundaries, I sincerely appreciate your active cooperation acrossnecessary to share the future image of GLIDE with the relevant organizations in theboundaries and borders to advance our work on DRR now and into the future.
aforementioned Steering Committee, and to proceed to develop based on the roadmap.

March 2019
Masanori Hamada, Chairman
Asian Disaster Reduction Center99