Disaster Resilience and Recovery
The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI)
Disaster loss accounting records what disasters cost: deaths, injuries, people affected, damage to assets and losses to economies and services. Consistent records are the basis for tracking Sendai targets, pricing risk and learning what works. This page sets out how losses are recorded, why small and slow disasters are undercounted, and what evidence serves the agencies that keep and use loss data.
GCRI · In development · service level R0
Disaster loss data are records of the deaths, injuries, people affected, damage and economic losses caused by disasters. Consistent loss accounting underpins Sendai targets, risk financing and learning. International databases capture major events, while national databases record frequent small ones, and slow or indirect losses are often missed.
For disaster loss accounting, in GCRI's spatial-intelligence reading, the map opens on population density, true-colour imagery and flood water, framed on the Philippines; every other NASA layer, live feed and forecast waits in the layer list.
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Layers 3
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NASA GIBS / EOSDIS · ASTER GDEM (METI, NASA) · Blue Marble (NASA) · © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) · Natural Earth
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For disaster loss accounting, in GCRI's spatial-intelligence reading, the map opens on population density, true-colour imagery and flood water, framed on the Philippines; every other NASA layer, live feed and forecast waits in the layer list.Satellite and model products as NASA publishes them, each with its own date; indicators, not assessments of any place; claim ceiling INTEGRATED.
Layers and dates
The working screen behind this subject: its structure, terms and states. Names are placeholders and values illustrative.
Disaster loss accounting · Affected area North · Day 68 after event
local units, millions, estimated
| Housing | 110 | 44 | 268 | 38 |
| Transport | 79 | 34 | 204 | 65 |
| Water and sanitation | 24 | 22 | 51 | 70 |
| Agriculture | 25 | 46 | 157 | 37 |
| Health | 20 | 25 | 14 | 88 |
progress vs baseline, illustrative
Direct and indirect loss methods. The dossier below sets out how the risk develops, what is measured, where the data come from, how it is modelled and who decides.
International databases use thresholds that capture major disasters. Frequent small events, which together cause large losses, appear only in national databases where they exist.
Damage is the destruction of physical assets; loss is the change in economic flows, such as lost production or extra costs. Mixing them or counting one twice distorts totals.
Deaths from heat, health effects of interrupted care, and losses that unfold over months after drought are hard to attribute, so they are often left out of disaster records.
Early figures are revised as assessments progress, and methods change over time. Without versioned records, trends reflect changes in counting as well as in disasters.
Each term as this page uses it. Where a standard-setting body defines the term, the wording follows that body.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Direct economic loss | The monetary value of total or partial destruction of physical assets in the affected area. |
| Affected people | People who suffered injury, illness or other health effects, were evacuated, displaced or relocated, or lost livelihoods or assets. |
| Disaster loss database | A systematic record of disaster events and their impacts kept to agreed definitions. |
Each indicator carries its unit, its cadence, the kind of source behind it and the evidence label a value would carry. No values are shown: a programme supplies them under its own authority.
| Indicator | Unit | Cadence | Source type | Label |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deaths and missing persons attributed to disasters | count per hundred thousand population | annual | Sendai Framework Monitor target A | OFFICIAL |
| People directly affected | count per hundred thousand population | annual | Sendai Framework Monitor target B | OFFICIAL |
| Direct economic loss | share of gross domestic product | annual | Sendai Framework Monitor target C | OFFICIAL |
| Damage to critical infrastructure and disruption of basic services | count of facilities and service disruptions | annual | Sendai Framework Monitor target D | OFFICIAL |
| Events recorded below international thresholds | count in national databases | annual | National disaster loss databases | REPORTED |
| Records disaggregated by sex, age and disability | percent of records | annual | National disaster loss databases | REPORTED |
The topic as a computational graph: named sources feed the methods, an evidence review gates the outputs, and the decisions stay with the authorities that hold them.
Fig. 02Nodes carry their type, two metric rows and a state; connectors show what feeds what; dashed frames name the owners; the timeline is the cadence. Design of the pipeline, not a record of a run.
Named public datasets and institutional records, each with its licence class. Sources by agreement are used only under their terms and never republished.
| Source | What it gives | Licence class |
|---|---|---|
| DesInventar Sendai (UNDRR) | National disaster loss databases at local resolution | Open, terms per national database (to check) |
| Sendai Framework Monitor | Official national reporting of losses against targets A to D | Public, UN terms of use |
| EM-DAT international disaster database (CRED, UCLouvain) | Events above thresholds with human and economic impacts | Free for non-commercial use with registration |
| IRDR Peril Classification and Hazard Glossary | Standard hazard classes for loss recording | Public, IRDR terms (to check) |
| Post-Disaster Needs Assessment reports | Detailed damage and loss estimates for major events | Public, terms per publisher |
Disaster Resilience and Recovery prepares evidence. The decisions below are taken by the authorities named, under their own rules, and never by the platform.
| Who decides | The question | Evidence this page serves |
|---|---|---|
| National disaster management authorities and statistics offices | How to organize and maintain a national loss database | Quality reviews; disaggregation guidance |
| Ministries of finance | How past losses should inform contingency budgets and risk financing | Loss series with method changes marked |
| UNDRR and regional organizations | How to support consistent reporting across countries | Crosswalks; completeness evidence |
Loss accounting specialists ask what is counted, by whom and with what consistency.
Direct losses, the physical damage to buildings, infrastructure, crops and stock, are the most often recorded, usually in replacement or repair terms. Indirect losses arise from disrupted flows: businesses that cannot operate, services that stop, supply chains that break. They can extend far beyond the affected area and last for years, but are harder to attribute to a single event.
Loss records are shaped by who collects them and why. Insured losses are well documented where insurance is common and nearly absent where it is not. Damage to informal housing and livelihoods is easily missed. Small, frequent events rarely make national databases, yet together they can account for a large share of loss to poor households. Without attention to these biases, loss data can understate risk where it is highest.
Event-by-event records of impacts at local level. Coverage and definitions vary between countries and over time.
Structured post-event assessment of damage, losses and recovery needs. Methods are standardised but quality depends on access and time.
Input-output and general equilibrium models for indirect losses, with operations research methods. Results depend on assumptions about substitution and recovery.
Satellite and aerial assessment using geospatial information systems. It shows physical damage, not economic or human loss.
The current service level is R0: information and enquiries. An enquiry receives a reference and names the next step; applications, payments, compute allocations and registrations open only when their team, terms and review capacity exist.