Establishment of network structure and governance
The inaugural workshop in December 2004 served to determine scope, purpose, and key stakeholders.It was agreed to limit the focus
of GDACS on alerts, impact estimations and initial coordination among international and national actors in major sudden onset disasters. With OCHA acting as secretariat, seed-funding for three years was provided by ECHO to launch the project.
From 2005 to 2010 annual meetings and technical workshops were organized by the GDACS Secretariat in OCHA to define the structure and management process of GDACS. The initial partners were ECHO, OCHA and UNOSAT. The GDACS Steering Committee was established in 2010 with the main purpose to agree and revise the annual work plan.
Regular meetings to agree on and advance the workplan. Annual GDACS steering committee and stakeholders meetings were held after 2010. Since 2015 the annual GDACS meeting is held in connection with the annual Humanitarian Networks and Partnerships Week (HNPW), to allow closer interaction with other humanitarian networks and to collaborate in the Areas of Common Concern, in particular in the areas “Anticipatory Action” and ”Localization and Coordination”.
Establishment of sustainable funding and support
An Initial 3-year seed-funding was provided by ECHO to launch GDACS as a project. Several options were explored to establish
sustainable funding. In 2011 it was agreed to adopt a shared funding model whereby GDACS partners cover the costs and provide necessary resources for the development of own services, activities and engagement
Design GDACS services based on user needs
Since the beginning, GDACS interacted and worked closely with the users of its services to facilitate the dialogue between scientists,
analytical products producers and disaster managers. They usually have different perspectives and use different terminology to articulate and address the same challenges.
It was of critical importance that GDACS services were designed based on user needs.
Since the establishment of GDACS, user feedback was regularly collected in the evaluation of the use of its services in simulation exercises and disasters. The findings and planned improvements were introduced and discussed at the annual stakeholder meetings. GDACS user satisfaction surveys were made in 2017 and 2023.
Development of GDACS alerts and impact estimations
Initially, GDACS provided alerts and automatic impact estimations only for earthquakes. Additional alerts and impact estimations were
added through the years* for other disaster types, which nowadays are continuously improved using new authoritative data sources, latest technologies (sensors, satellite images, etc.), and advanced modelling , including applications of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Today, impact estimations contain also secondary risks and cascading effects.
*Hazards covered semi-automatically by GDACS, by year of introduction:
Earthquakes (since 2004) Floods (since 2004) Tsunamis (since 2004) Tropical cyclones (since 2011) Volcanoes (since 2019) Droughts (since 2017) Wildfires (since 2021)
Coordination among disaster managers worldwide
Once alerted, the Virtual OSOCC disaster discussion forum serves as platform for information exchange and coordination
among international actors in the first hours, days, and weeks after major sudden onset disasters.
In cooperation with and support from disaster managers, GDACS developed a structured disaster discussion forum to facilitate real time targeted information exchange.
GDACS introduced moderated disaster discussions, where different sections are moderated and managed proactively by experts.
Development of a joint GDACS portal
In 2011 GDACS combined the online services of its partners (alerts, impact estimations, Virtual OSOCC and SMCS) into a single website>
at www.gdacs.org. The joint portal was developed by JRC/ECHO, hosted by the European Commission. The other components (Virtual OSOCC and SMCS) are hosted on different systems by OCHA and UNOSAT respectively. The integration of the systems is accomplished using a standard layout on the websites and real-time data exchange between the system databases using RSS and GLIDE number (standard disaster identifier).
Major revisions to the GDACS portal were made in 2018 and are planned in 2024. All GDACS services that feed into the joint portal are regularly improved to ensure compliance with latest scientific knowledge technologies and user expectations
Introducing and practising GDACS methodology on the global scale
Since 2006, GDACS uses the Virtual OSOCC in major regional and national disaster response exercises to introduce and practice international
coordination procedures and the use of GDACS services in support of early decision making.
In 2012, an inject management system was introduced to facilitate the preparation of exercise discussions by cloning previous exercises (templates) with pre-selected information input (updates, files, maps, comments, registered teams, etc.) which can be scheduled or manually released when required (injects) during the exercise.
GDACS in major disasters 2004 – 2024
In 20 years of operations GDACS supported humanitarian community for more than 120.000 events.
Below a selection of the top 10 disasters, in term of humanitarian impact and mobilisation, analysed by GDACS between 2004 and 2024
2004 26-Dec-2004 Earthquake and Tsunami in Indonesia (earthquake) 2008 03-May-2008 Myanmar: Tropical Cyclone Nargis, May 2008 (cyclone) 2009 30-Sep-2009 Indonesia: Earthquake Sumatra, Sep 2009 (earthquake) 2010 12-Jan-2010 Haiti: Earthquake, Jan 2010 (earthquake) 2011 11-Mar-2011 Japan: Earthquake/Tsunami, Mar 2011 (earthquake) 2013 05-Nov-2013 Philippines: Tropical Cyclone Haiyan, Nov 2013 (cyclone) 2015 25-Apr-2015 Nepal: Earthquake, Apr 2015 (earthquake) 2016 17-Apr-2016 Ecuador: Earthquake, Apr 2016 (earthquake)
Satellite images, maps and SMCS
To improve the quality and relevance of satellite-based map products in support of decision making, GDACS developed preliminary
standard metadata for satellite maps
In 2013 UNOSAT launched the Satellite Mapping Coordination System (SMCS), to coordinate the production of demand driven satellite mapping products in major disasters. SMCS provides a real-time interactive interface where the Area of Interest of newly requested maps are indicated and the status of finalization of the map product is indicated. The system supports the coordination among satellite image providers, map producers and users, by indicating which map products are currently under development, and by downloading finalized products directly from the portal upon completion.
