The Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System provides near real-time alerts about natural disasters around the world and tools to facilitate response coordination, including media monitoring, map catalogues and Virtual On-Site Operations Coordination Centre.

About the GDACS System

GDACS is a web-based platform that combines existing web-based disaster information management systems with the aim to alert the international community in case of major sudden-onset disasters and to facilitate the coordination of international response during the relief phase of the disaster.

• A set of standards to ensure interoperability between existing alert and response coordination systems
• A set of working procedures to ensure predictability and reliability of information creation and exchange during crisis response
• Stakeholders that commit to provide related information according to the standards and the working procedures

Aim

The aim of GDACS is to provide the international disaster response community with a platform to ensure that disaster alerts and information relevant to the international disaster response is exchanged interactively in a structured and predictable manner among all concerned.

Scope

GDACS will be activated in major natural, technological and environmental disasters, which overwhelm the affected country’s response capacity and require international assistance.

GDACS will be active from the moment a major disaster is forecasted or has occurred until the end of the relief phase. The relief phase terminates when there is no further requirement for information exchange by responding organisations to coordinate their activities and the focus of international assistance shifts to rehabilitation and reconstructions. The duration of the relief phase can vary in disasters but is usually between three to four weeks. Early warning and rehabilitation/reconstruction will currently not be covered by GDACS.

Users and Stakeholders

The access to GDACS alert-notification and interactive components (e.g. Virtual OSOCC) are restricted (password protected) to disaster managers in donor countries, response organisations and disaster-prone countries. In addition, GDACS will be accessible to the research community who analyse disaster impact and response activities in order to improve international disaster management concepts.

Disaster-prone countries should be the primary stakeholders of GDACS. This requires that dedicated focal points be established and trained in these countries to ensure that in case of major disasters, relevant information is reliably and timely provided to the international community according to defined GDACS standards and methodology.

Activation of GDACS

Disaster alerts are triggered either automatically by the disaster monitoring and impact or loss estimation tool ASGARD after the event of a disaster, or through the Virtual OSOCC by any registered user who becomes aware of a major disaster.

A thread of disaster discussions is established on the Virtual OSOCC when a disaster is significant for international responders, and will remain active until the end of the relief phase.

GDACS alert notification triggers:

Level I alerts:

Disaster alert is sent to subscribers in case of

• automatic detection of a disaster by ASGARD
• a stakeholder triggers a disaster alert on the Virtual OSOCC
• ReliefWeb is activated (after the first OCHA or IFRC situation report)
• AlertNet trigger an alert based on internal evaluation of the event

Level II alerts:

Disaster alert is sent to subscribers only after the Level I alert has been confirmed by GDACS Monitors. This is to ensure that subscribers can choose to be alerted only in disaster that have been analysed as significant by experts and where international assistance is required.

GDACS Services

Initial disaster alert and impact/loss estimation

Immediately after the occurrence of a disaster, subscribed stakeholders are notified automatically by ASGARD with preliminary disaster information and an electronically calculated loss and impact estimation.

Alert of the international disaster response community

Based on the initial disaster notification, Virtual OSOCC Moderators (VOM) will contact the affected country and other relevant sources in order to obtain more information about the disaster. The results of their survey is published on the Virtual OSOCC. In case of a request for international assistance, or if the affected country appears to require international support, the VOM will trigger an alert of all stakeholders with Level II subscription.

Coordination of relief activities

In major disasters, the VOM creates a separate discussion thread on the Virtual OSOCC to allow disaster managers in the affected country and in the international community to exchange information related to the disaster response operation. The information is structured in sectors (priority needs, logistics, shelter, food, water/sanitation, etc.) to facilitate the information management. The VOM facilitate the discussions on the Virtual OSOCC and periodically summarise the sectoral information in order to maintain an updated information overview. In addition, the VOM follow up on any user queries on the Virtual OSOCC.

Provision of satellite images and maps

UNOSAT provides customised satellite images and maps that can be requested on-line by registered users of the Virtual OSOCC or directly from UNOSAT.

Integration of related information management systems

In addition to alert notifications and moderated disaster information management, GDACS integrates other related disaster information systems to allow a “one-stop shopping” for users. These systems include:

• ReliefWeb report and map repository
• News feeds (e.g. AlertNet, EMM, Yahoo)
• Disaster early warning sites (HEWSWeb)

Publications and Presentations

Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System: for more effective and efficient humanitarian response. Tom De Groeve  5 Jun 2007 12:00:00 AM   Presentation of GDACS by the Joint Research Centre at the 14th Conference of the International Emergency Management Society, Trogir, Croatia.

GDACS brochure Tom De Groeve  1 Apr 2005 12:00:00 AM   JRC Promotional Material on GDACS.

News and Events

Fourth GDACS Stakeholders Meeting
upcoming in 2008

Third GDACS Stakeholders Meeting
(24-25 April 2007, Seggau, Austria)

Second GDACS Stakeholders Meeting (21-22 March 2006, Geneva)
15 months after the 1st meeting GDACS stakeholders evaluated progress.

GDACS Technical Meeting (13-14 December 2005, Ispra)
Review of GDACS standards, feeds and portal.

Data sources

GDACS collects information on natural hazards from available public web sites. More on data sources.

Participating organisations

Funding

GDACS is financially supported by the European Commission Office for Humanitarian Aid (ECHO)

© European Communities, 2004-2008 Reproduction authorised provided the source is acknowledged, except for commercial purposes.