Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters: Announcement of EM-DAT’s new disaster classification

One of the major current challenges in the field of disaster data is to overcome the limitations induced by the lack of clear standards and definitions, which lead to inconsistent reliability and poor inter-operability of different disaster data compilation initiatives.

CRED militates since years for the creation of internationally recognized standards and definitions. That’s why we are particularly happy to announce a major step forward in the development of a standardized international classification of disasters. Indeed, CRED and MünichRe have recently led a collaborative initiative, agreed on and implemented a common “Disaster Category Classification for Operational Databases". This new common classification has been established through several technical meetings that brought together CRED, MünichRe, SwissRe, ADRC and UNDP and represents a first step in the development of a standardized international classification of disasters.
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