EM-DAT, the Emergency Events Database, managed by the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) at UCLouvain, serves as a comprehensive repository of information on both natural and technological disasters globally. Drawing from diverse sources, EM-DAT provides data on the date, location, type, and impacts of major disasters, including human casualties, economic losses, and environmental damage.
Accessing the data
You’ll need to register on the EM-DAT portal in order to access the data. As part of the registration process, you’ll need to select what type of organisation you are (note that commercial users are required to complete a database license agreement before being able to access the data). You will also need to validate your account by clicking on the link that is emailed to you.
Once you are logged in, you can download the data by clicking on the ‘Access Data’ button on the top toolbar. You can filter for classification of disaster, countries affected, and time period. Users of the Data Exchange may be particularly interested in the following classification:
- Climatological: drought, wildfire, glacial lake outburst flood
- Hydrological: flood
- Meterological: extreme temperature, storm
Once you’ve selected the relevant records, click download. This will create an XLSX file that includes the relevant disasters.