Reports

Closing Climate and Disaster Data Gaps

Guha-Sapir, Debarati; Scales, Sarah; Kruczkiewicz, Andrew J.; Arfvidson Umana, Nathalie; Das Gupta, Ivy; Colaco, M. Conceicao; Venkatraman, Rashmi

This report examines significant and specific gaps in long-running disaster impact data sets which skew our knowledge about global patterns and trends. The report identifies substantial variability in the same impact measurements – including the key metric of mortality – across global databases. Additional gaps include longstanding disagreements about disaster data-reporting standards around the world, and only a partial global consensus on disaster definitions and parameters. This report summarizes the main data issues involving human impacts of disasters, and does not review all
existing databases. This report identifies gaps in a wide range of data about selected hazards – heatwaves, wildfires, storms and floods and recommends priorities for action to improve data ecosystems working on these hazards. Our recommendations include feasible steps that can
be taken to improve subnational data collection about the most at-risk groups. The recommendations also include actions that data providers should undertake to make sure the information provided to DRR managers, practitioners and affected populations is useful, relevant and accessible. To this end, we ask four critical questions: Do we have the disaster impact data we need to develop and support appropriate DRR and adaptation actions? If not, what is missing?; How do we improve data collection and engage local, national and regional entities to capture the impacts of unreported or underreported events, including smaller but persistent localized disasters?; What obstacles prevent necessary data disaggregation, and what steps can be taken to overcome these barriers?; How can we improve data ecosystems to turn available and future data into usable information for DRR and adaptation policymakers, practitioners and affected populations?

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More About This Work

Academic Units
International Research Institute for Climate and Society
Publisher
United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction
Published Here
April 29, 2024