EM-DAT Public Table

Content and Presentation of the Database as Publicly Available

Overview

The EM-DAT Public Table is a flat representation of EM-DAT data in a single downloadable table. Most impact variables are part of the public table (see Impact Variables). The public table provides a flat view of the general structure in which each record (row) corresponds to a disaster impacting a country.

Column Description

Column Name Type Description
Dis No. ID, Mandatory A unique 8-digit identifier including the year (4 digits) and a sequential number (4 digits) for each disaster event (i.e., 2004-0659). In the EM-DAT Public Table, the ISO country code is appended. See column ISO below.
Historic Yes/No, Mandatory Binary field specifying whether or not the disaster happened before 2000, using the Start Year. Data before 2000 should be considered of lesser quality (see Time Bias).
Classification Key ID, Mandatory A unique 15-character string identifying disasters in terms of the Group, Subgroup, Type and Subtype classification hierarchy. See Disaster Classification System.
Disaster Group Name, Mandatory The disaster group, i.e., “Natural” or “Technological.” See Disaster Classification System.
Disaster Subgroup Name, Mandatory The disaster subgroup. See Disaster Classification System.
Disaster Type Name, Mandatory The disaster type. See Disaster Classification System.
Disaster Subtype Name, Mandatory The disaster subtype. See Disaster Classification System.
External IDs IDs List, Optional List of identifiers for external resources (GLIDE, USGS, DFO), in the format “<source>:<identifier>” and separated by the pipe character ("|").
Event Name Optional Short specification for disaster identification, e.g., storm names (e.g., “Mitch”), plane type in air crash (e.g., “Boeing 707”), disease name (e.g., “Cholera”), or volcano name (e.g., “Etna”).
ISO ID, Mandatory The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 3-letter code referring to the Country. The ISO 3166 norm is used. See Spatial Information and Geocoding.
Country Name, Mandatory Country where the disaster occurred and had an impact, using names from the UN M49 Standard. See Spatial Information and Geocoding. If multiple countries are affected, each will have an entry linked to the same Dis No.
Subregion Name, Mandatory Subregion where the disaster occurred based on UN M49 standard, automatically linked to the Country field. See Spatial Information and Geocoding.
Region Name, Mandatory Region or continent where the disaster occurred based on UN M49 standard, automatically linked to the Country field. See Spatial Information and Geocoding.
Location Text, Optional Geographical location name as specified in the sources, e.g., city, village, department, province, state, or district. Used to identify corresponding GAUL Admin Units (see GAUL Index and Admin Levels).
Origin Text, Optional Additional specifications on the contextual factors that led to the event, e.g., “heavy rains” for floods, or “drought” for a forest fire.
Associated Types Names List, Optional List of secondary disaster types cascading from or co-occurring aside from the main type (optional), e.g., a landslide following a flood or an explosion after an earthquake. Separated by the pipe character ("|").
OFDA/BHA Response Yes/No, Mandatory Binary field specifying whether or not the (former) Office of US Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) or the Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) responded to the disaster.
Appeal Yes/No, Mandatory Binary field specifying whether or not there was a request for international assistance from the affected country.
Declaration Yes/No, Mandatory Binary field specifying whether a state of emergency was declared in the country.
Aid Contribution Unadjusted Monetary Amount (‘000 US$), Optional The total amount (in thousands of US$ at the time of the report) of contributions for immediate relief activities to the country in response to the disaster, sourced from the Financial Tracking System of OCHA (1992 to 2015). Not maintained after 2015 due to a lack of availability of information. Some aid contribution information can be found at https://fts.unocha.org/.
Magnitude Disaster-Type-Dependent, Optional The intensity of a specific disaster (see Hazard and Disaster Magnitude Units).
Magnitude Scale Disaster-Type-Dependent, Optional The associated unit for the Magnitude column (see Hazard and Disaster Magnitude Units).
Latitude Degrees [-90;90], Optional North-South coordinates mainly for earthquakes and volcanic activity. Sometimes reported for floods, landslides, and storms (mostly when associated with floods).
Longitude Degrees [-180;180], Optional East-West coordinates mainly for earthquakes and volcanic activity. Sometimes reported for floods, landslides, and storms (mostly when associated with floods).
River Basin Text, Optional Name of affected river basins, typically used for floods.
Start Year Numeric, Mandatory Year of occurrence of the disaster.
Start Month Numeric, Optional Month of occurrence of the disaster. For sudden-impact disasters, this field is well defined. For disasters developing gradually over a longer time period (e.g., drought) with no precise onset date, this field can be left blank.
Start Day Numeric, Optional Day of occurrence of the disaster. For sudden-impact disasters, this field is well defined. For disasters developing gradually over a longer time period (e.g., drought) with no precise onset date, this field can be left blank.
End Year Numeric, Optional Year of disaster conclusion.
End Month Numeric, Optional Month of conclusion of the disaster. For sudden-impact disasters, this field is well defined. For disasters developing gradually over a longer time period (e.g., drought) with no precise end date, this field can be left blank.
End Day Numeric, Optional Day of conclusion of the disaster. For sudden-impact disasters, this field is well defined. For disasters developing gradually over a longer time period (e.g., drought) with no precise end date, this field can be left blank.
Total Deaths Numeric, Optional Total fatalities (deceased and missing combined, see Human Impact Variables).
No. Injured Numeric, Optional Number of people with physical injuries, trauma, or illness requiring immediate medical assistance due to the disaster (see Human Impact Variables).
No. Affected Numeric, Optional Number of people requiring immediate assistance due to the disaster (see Human Impact Variables).
No. Homeless Numeric, Optional Number of people requiring shelter due to their house being destroyed or heavily damaged during the disaster (see Human Impact Variables).
Total Affected Numeric, Optional Total number of affected people (No Injured, No Affected, and No Homeless combined, see Human Impact Variables).
Reconstruction Costs (‘000 US$) Unadjusted Monetary Amount (‘000 US$), Optional Costs for replacement of lost assets in thousands of US dollars (‘000 US$) relative to Start Year, unadjusted for inflation (see Economic Impact Variables).
Reconstruction Costs, Adjusted (‘000 US$) Adjusted Monetary Amount (‘000 US$), Optional Reconstruction Costs (‘000 US$), adjusted for inflation using the Consumer Price Index (CPI column, see Economic Adjustment).
Insured Damage (‘000 US$) Unadjusted Monetary Amount (‘000 US$), Optional Economic damage covered by insurance companies, in thousands of US dollars (‘000 US$), relative to Start Year, unadjusted for inflation (see Economic Impact Variables).
Insured Damage, Adjusted (‘000 US$) Adjusted Monetary Amount (‘000 US$), Optional Insured Damage (‘000 US$) adjusted for inflation using the Consumer Price Index (CPI column, see Economic Adjustment).
Total Damage (‘000 US$) Unadjusted Monetary Amount (‘000 US$), Optional Value of all economic losses directly or indirectly due to the disaster, in thousands of US dollars (‘000 US$), relative to Start Year, unadjusted for inflation (see Economic Impact Variables).
Total Damage, Adjusted (‘000 US$) Adjusted Monetary Amount (‘000 US$), Optional Total Damage (‘000 US$) adjusted for inflation using the Consumer Price Index (CPI column, see Economic Adjustment).
CPI Conversion Ratio, Optional Consumer Price Index from OECD used to adjust US$ values for inflation relative to Start Year (see Economic Adjustment).
Admin Units JSON Array of Objects, Optional Collection of impacted Administrative Units from the FAO GAUL 2015 referential (Global Administrative Unit Layers 2015). Individual objects correspond to Level-1 or Level-2 Administrative Units, with the corresponding fields adm1_code, adm1_name or adm2_code, adm2_name providing the unique identifier to the geometry in the GAUL layer and the name of the unit, respectively. Geocoding is maintained for non-biological natural hazards from 2000 onwards (see Spatial Information and Geocoding).
Entry Date Date, Mandatory The day on which the event record was created in EM-DAT.
Last Update Date, Mandatory The last modification of the event or one of its associated records in EM-DAT. This may not result in a modification of the information in the EM-DAT Public Table as modifications to private fields are recorded as well.