Disaster Risk Decision Resources for Developing Countries

by Prof. Dr. Tadashi Nakasu <tadashi.nakasu@gmail.com>

The Disaster Links Library (DLL) and the Global Disaster Research Navigator (GDRN)

Operations Research and Management practitioners in developing countries increasingly stand at the front line of disaster decision-making — optimizing emergency logistics and humanitarian supply chains, allocating scarce resources for risk reduction and post-disaster recovery, and designing capacity-building strategies under tight fiscal and institutional constraints. The quality of every such model, however, depends on the quality and reach of the information behind it. Yet the authoritative data, frameworks, and institutional knowledge on which sound disaster decisions rest remain scattered across hundreds of agencies, databases, and policy frameworks worldwide. For practitioners without dedicated research infrastructure, simply locating a reliable starting point can consume hours that should be spent on analysis and action. The two open-access resources introduced here were curated to remove that friction directly — to bring the most useful disaster risk reduction (DRR) resources within a few clicks of any OR worker, anywhere.

1. The Disaster Links Library (DLL)

https://disasterlinklibrary.site/

The Disaster Links Library is a single-page, searchable web reference that brings together more than 500 carefully selected links across 32 thematic categories. It pairs real-time monitoring feeds (GDACS, USGS Earthquakes, NASA FIRMS, the National Hurricane Center) with historical loss databases (EM-DAT, DesInventar, NOAA Billion-Dollar Weather Disasters), policy frameworks (the Sendai Framework, IPCC, UNDRR), open data and GIS platforms (HDX, World Bank Open Data for Resilience, SEDAC), and hazard-specific portals covering earthquakes, floods, typhoons, droughts, wildfires, and epidemics, among others.

For OR and Management practitioners, the Library functions as an everyday decision-support entry point — a single door to the inputs that quantitative disaster work depends on: parameter estimation, risk and loss modelling, scenario analysis, and evidence-based briefing notes for ministries, local governments, and humanitarian partners. No account or registration is required; the page is intentionally light, fast, and usable from low-bandwidth settings. A guided introduction is available here.

2. The Global Disaster Research Navigator (GDRN)

https://globalnavi.site/

The Global Disaster Research Navigator complements the DLL by providing a structured directory of the institutions and knowledge hubs that shape global DRR practice. Entries can be filtered by region — with strengthened coverage of Africa, the Caribbean, Central America, the Andean region, the Pacific, the Arab States, and Europe and Central Asia — by function (early warning, capacity building, funding, emergency response, research, data, policy, education, and humanitarian aid), and by hazard type. The Navigator is inspired by, and pays scholarly tribute to, the “World Links on International Organizations Related to Disaster Prevention” originally developed at the Disaster Information Laboratory (DIL) of Japan’s National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience (NIED). It has been independently redesigned with a new category architecture, freshly written descriptions, and individually verified links.

For practitioners in developing countries, the GDRN offers a curated map for identifying partners, donors, peer institutions, and regional bodies — the cross-sectoral collaborations that effective DRR, and any well-scoped OR intervention, ultimately require. A guided introduction is available here.

Why these resources matter for the OR community

Taken together, the DLL and the GDRN are designed to support OR and Management practitioners across every stage of the disaster risk cycle: (1) identifying the right data and frameworks for pre disaster preparedness and risk assessment; (2) locating the institutions that can provide technical support and financing; (3) accessing real-time information during a crisis to inform rapid, model-based response; and (4) learning from cross-country experience to strengthen national resilience over the long term. In each case the resources supply what models cannot generate on their own — reliable data, credible frameworks, and the institutional map — so that OR effort can be spent on formulation, analysis, and decision support rather than on the search itself.

Both resources are open-access, free of advertisements, and independently maintained under a Creative Commons (CC BY 4.0) license. They are offered to the IFORS Developing Countries community in the hope that they will modestly contribute to building and sustaining more resilient nations.

Links

Disaster Links Library (DLL): https://disasterlinklibrary.site/ Global Disaster Research Navigator (GDRN): https://globalnavi.site/