Disaster events are frequent and extensive. The improved communication facilities allow accurate and immediate data on events on an almost daily basis. However, tracking them is quite complex.
The National Knowledge and Research Center for Emergency Readiness regularly collects articles from different media sources, you can find them in Hebrew (under תקשורת) and English (under News Bulletins) and also on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/emergencyreadiness).
For further information we would recommend to consult the two databases presented here below, which follow world-wide disaster events and publications, on the subject, on a daily basis.
EM-DAT: The International Disaster Database: https://www.emdat.be
In 1988, the Center for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) launched the Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT). EM-DAT was created with the initial support of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Belgian Government.
EM-DAT contains essential core data on the occurrence and effects of over 22,000 mass disasters in the world since 1900 to present day. The database is compiled from various sources, including UN agencies, non-governmental organizations, insurance companies, research institutes and press agencies.
The database includes events for which at least one of the following criteria is fulfilled:
- Ten (10) or more people reported killed
- Hundred (100) or more people reported affected
- Declaration of a state of emergency
- Call for international assistance
In addition, CRED published a yearly report: Natural disasters 2018 summarizing major disasters that occurred in 2018, by number of fatalities, affected and economic losses.
PreventionWeb: https://www.preventionweb.net/english
PreventionWeb is a collaborative knowledge sharing platform on disaster risk reduction (DRR), managed by the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR).
On this website you can find news from various sources as well as documents and publications. The information is categorized by regions (Asia, Africa, Americas etc), hazard types (drought, heatwaves, epidemic etc) and by themes (climate change, cultural heritage, governance etc). You can ask for updates on a daily or weekly basis and you can upload your own publications.