Disaster Category Classification 1
Disaster Category Classification 1 : Introduction: 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 leads to inconsistent reliability and poor interoperability of different disaster data compilation initiatives. The Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) militates for years for the creation of internationally recognized standards and definitions. In 2006, CRED undertook an analytical review of selected data set on natural disasters and impacts1. The objective was to provide a comprehensive overview of current global disaster database initiatives to better identify gaps or differences in information and strengths in our individual interpretations. The paper highlights the strengths and weaknesses of all those efforts that have taken place to better document the impacts of disasters and draws attention to the problems and the areas in which management of disaster information could improve. Some of the areas identified include: Disaster definition: Differences and lack of standardization of the terminology complicate comparisons of data and Disaster typology/classification: Databases have to cope with disaster (sub)type classifications as well as their primary and secondary effects. Without standardized terminology, databases continue to face a decreased accuracy in reporting disaster related impact. Georeferencing, temporal aspects, methodology and sourcing were other issues that have been identified. Although these issues are not new, they represent areas where we should focus our attention, and also remind us of the challenges that this area of research continues to face. The standardization of methods and definitions is clearly the key issue to be addressed in order to improve data quality and to ensure comparability between data sets
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