This article presents an open source extension to the Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT) that allows researchers to explore and make use of subnational, geocoded data on major disasters triggered by natural hazards. The Geocoded Disasters (GDIS) dataset provides spatial geometry in the form of GIS polygons and centroid latitude and longitude coordinates for each administrative entity listed as a disaster location in the EM-DAT database. In total, GDIS contains spatial information on 39,953 locations for 9,924 unique disasters occurring worldwide between 1960 and 2018. The dataset facilitates connecting the EM-DAT database to other geographic data sources on the subnational level to enable rigorous empirical analyses of disaster determinants and impacts. The article is accessible for free through the journal's web page.
The GDIS data files are stored at a designated NASA SEDAC repository but can also be downloaded as a zip file from this page.
Work is currently underway on an updated GDIS v.2 that will include disaster locations for more recent years.
