Historical disaster information system: preliminary analysis
The report 'Sri Lanka historical disaster information system', a historical disaster inventory system, has jointly been produced by the Disaster Management Centre within the Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights of Sri Lanka, and UNDP with their Regional Centre in Bangkok. In establishing the system, information of past disaster events have been collected for the period 1974-2007. The two sources of data include the media and Government reports.
This report represents the overall country wide preliminary analysis of the historical disaster impact data collected. The results may show some inconsistencies owing to the limitations in the report, and hence the conclusions and findings should be viewed as purely preliminary and a representation of the nature of the analysis that can be carried out using the disaster inventory system. Validation of existing data and collection of additional data commenced in nine districts - Colombo, Gampaha, Kalutara, Puttalam, Rathnapura, Matara, Galle, Hambantota and Kandy - with the assistance of district and divisional officials. The process was completed in May 2007.
The report has been initiated based on the DesInventar system developed by the Network for Social Studies on Disaster Prevention in Latin America (LA RED). The web-based database can be accessed at: www.desinventar.lk. There is also a link to the database on the DMC website: www.dmc.gov.lk.