GDACS is a cooperation framework among UN-OCHA, the European Commission, UNOSAT, and other partners. Amongst other things, GDACS aims at providing disaster alerts and impact estimations to the humanitarian community and disaster management professionals worldwide after major sudden-onset disasters that potentially require international assistance.
GDACS alert products are the result of modelling, whereby data from scientific institutions and information (such as bulletins) from authoritative domains are used to calculate, through automatic algorithms, the possible impact of sudden-onset disasters with regard to the potential need for international assistance. They are intended for disaster management professionals and not for the general public or the media.
In most cases, GDACS alerts (notably in the case of earthquakes, tsunamis and tropical cyclones) are automatic, produced by algorithms and are not reviewed by human experts before being issued. They are subject to the uncertainties and errors in the data used (such as earthquake magnitude, epicentre, population numbers etc) as well as assumptions in the alert decision algorithms.
GDACS services are not meant to substitute official information sources, or local and national civil protection authorities that have the mandate to issue evacuation or other life-protection measures. Expert assessment of the situation and eventual evacuation and response plans must always be carried out by competent decision-makers in designated positions of authority.
GDACS alerts and automatic impact estimations require further verification by alternative data sources. They should not be used for decision making without alternate sources of information to confirm or disprove their validity. Links to a number of official alert providers and original data sources (such as the World Meteorological Organisation, UNESCO-IOC, USGS etc) are given in the site.
GDACS alerts are issued in near-real-time, but no guarantee is provided whatsoever as to the completeness or timeliness of the alerts. The system can be subject to unspecified downtime, server reboots or other causes of missed events or updates.
THE GDACS STAKEHOLDERS AND ADVISORY BOARD (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION, UN-OCHA AND UNOSAT) DO NOT ASSUME ANY RESPONSIBILITY OR LIABILITY WHATSOEVER WITH REGARD TO THE INFORMATION ON THIS SITE AND WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGE OR LOSS OF LIFE THAT MIGHT RESULT FROM THE USE OF ITS CONTENTS.
