Introduction

First version 2023.09 of the EM-DAT Documentation.

• EM-DAT Documentation: Removed EM-DAT guidelines and replaced them with this new documentation website.
• EM-DAT Public Data: Made minor changes in the column names and their styling.
• EM-DAT Public Data: Added new column ‘Historic’.
• EM-DAT Public Data: Added new column ‘Classification Key’.
• EM-DAT Public Data: Added new column ‘Entry Date’.
• EM-DAT Public Data: Added new column ‘Last Update’.
• EM-DAT Public Data: Removed column ‘Year’. Use ‘Start Year’ instead.
• EM-DAT Public Data: Removed column ‘Seq’. Sequential number can be retrieved from the ‘DisNo.’ column instead.
• EM-DAT Public Data: Removed column ‘Disaster Subsubtype’. Use the new 4-level classification tree instead.
• EM-DAT Public Data: Replaced ‘Glide’ Column with ‘External IDs’.
• EM-DAT Public Data: Replaced column ‘Continent’ with the ‘Region’ column based on UN M49 standard.
• EM-DAT Public Data: Replaced column ‘Region’ with the ‘Subregion’ column based on UN M49 standard.
• EM-DAT Public Data: Replaced the two columns ‘Associated Dis’ and ‘Associated Dis2’ with one column ‘Associated Types’. The new column can store an unlimited number of associated types.
• EM-DAT Public Data: Replaced columns ‘Adm Level’, ‘Admin1 Code’, ‘Admin2 Code’, and ‘Geo Locations’ with one single column ‘Admin Units’ with JSON entries.
• EM-DAT Public Data: Columns ‘OFDA Response’, ‘Appeal’, and ‘Declaration’ are now strictly binary (either ‘Yes’ or ‘No’).
• EM-DAT Public Data: Reviewed and made minor corrections to the data content during the documentation process.

Minor update of the EM-DAT Documentation.

• EM-DAT Documentation: updated highlighted publications.
• EM-DAT Documentation: edited ‘Admin Units’ column description.
• EM-DAT Documentation: edited and added a reference in the ‘Known Issues’ section.
• EM-DAT Documentation: added a column ‘classif key’ in the table description the main classification system.

Minor update of the EM-DAT Documentation.

• EM-DAT Documentation: corrected classification for inconsistencies in Mass Movement (dry) and Mass Movement (wet) children subtypes.
• EM-DAT Documentation: added notice of complex disasters removal in the classification and database.
• EM-DAT Documentation: added link to the last version of the previous public table in the previous portal layout, including removed complex disasters.
• EM-DAT Documentation: updated the protocols to reflect the weekly rate of updates of the public table.

Preprint on the EM-DAT Database available, one column name change and minor changes.

• EM-DAT Documentation: added preprint citation in “How to Cite?”
• EM-DAT Documentation and Public Table: renamed the column OFDA Response to OFDA/BHA Response, with updates in the related documentation.
• EM-DAT Documentation: added more references to the legacy public table.

Python Tutorials made available and minor changes in external resources.

• EM-DAT Documentation: added 2 Python Tutorials in the “External Resources and Tutorials” section.
• EM-DAT Documentation: removed tidyDisasters from the external resources as the package is not maintained and has been removed from CRAN.
• EM-DAT Documentation: Removed broken link referring to UN Second-Administrative Level Boundaries (SLAB) program.

Minor changes in tutorials, changes in disaster magnitude scales.

• EM-DAT Documentation: Minor changes in Python Tutorial 1.
• EM-DAT Documentation: Clarification of the meaning of empty cell in public table.
• EM-DAT Documentation: Additional citation in the Time Bias section.
• EM-DAT Documentation: Note on imputation added to the list of external resources.
• EM-DAT Database and Documentation: Switching from Richter to Moment Magnitude.

Minor changes in external resources

• EM-DAT Documentation: Added EM-VIEW in the External Resources section.

Update in legal texts, minor fixes.

• Corrected Belgian law incosistency in legal texts.
• Various typos and broken links fixed.