Definition of basic effects

Effects in DesInventar are the sum of losses or adverse effects which take place in a specific geographical unit. These are the direct indicators of conditions of vulnerability in communities, regions and countries. DesInventar works with a list of variables of effects commonly generated by a disaster such as, those that affect people, homes, vital infrastructure, and economic sectors.

In addition to the disaggregation of information, the geographical reference (resolution level), and the definitions of types of detonating events, the Effect fields definitions are at the heart of DesInventar’s methodology.

The effects of disaster have been classified in four groups: Related to people; Related to homes; Related to infrastructure and Economic losses.

Deaths
The number of persons whose deaths were directly caused. When final official data is available, this figure should be included with corresponding observations, for example, when there are differences between officially accepted figures and those of other sources.

Missing
The number of persons whose whereabouts since the disaster is unknown. It includes people who are presumed dead, although there is no physical evidence. The data on number of deaths and number of missing are mutually exclusive and should not be mixed.

Injured, sick
The number of persons whose health or physical integrity is affected as a direct result of the disaster. This figure does not include victims who die. Those who suffer injuries and or illness, if the event is related to a plague or epidemic, should be included here.

Affected
The number of persons who suffer indirect or secondary effects related to a disaster. This refers to the number of people, distinct from victims, who suffer the impact of secondary effects of disasters for such reasons as deficiencies in public services, commerce, work, or because of isolation. If the information refers to families, calculate the number of people according to available indicators.

Victims
The number of persons whose goods and/or individual or collective services have suffered serious damage, directly associated with the event. For example, partial or total destruction of their homes and goods; loss of crops and/or crops stored in warehouses, etc. If the information refers to families, calculate the number of people according to available indicators.

Evacuated
The number of persons temporarily evacuated from their homes, work places, schools, hospitals, etc. If the information refers to families, calculate the number of people according to available indicators.

Relocated
The number of persons who have been moved permanently from their homes to new sites. If the information refers to families, calculate the number of people according to available indicators.

Houses Damaged
The number of homes with minor damage, not structural or architectural, which may continue being lived in, although they may require some repair or cleaning.

Houses destroyed
The number of homes levelled, buried, collapsed or damaged to the extent that they are no longer habitable.

Crops and woods (Hectares)
The amount of cultivated or pastoral land or woods destroyed or affected. If the information exists in another measurement, it should be converted to hectares.

Livestock
The number of animals lost (bovine, pig, ovine, poultry) regardless of the type of event (flood, drought, epidemic, etc).

Educational centres
The amount of play schools, kindergartens, schools, colleges, universities, training centres etc, destroyed or directly or indirectly affected by the disaster. Include those that have been used as temporary shelters.

Hospitals
The number of health centres, clinics, local and regional hospitals destroyed and directly or indirectly affected by the disaster.

Loss value $
Sum of losses directly caused by the disaster in local currency.

Loss value US$
The equivalent in dollars (US$) of the value of losses in local currency, according to the exchange rate on the date of the disaster. This figure is useful for comparative evaluations between databases.

Roads affected (Mts.)
The length of transport networks destroyed and/or rendered unusable, in metres.

Other losses
A description of other losses not included in the fields of the basic record. For example: religious buildings and monuments, architectural or cultural heritage buildings, theatres and public installations, public administration buildings relating to banks, commerce and tourism; vehicles or buses lost, bridges.

Transport sector
Qualitative field in the database. It has two options: Affected or Not Affected. It relates to the effects of the disaster on the transport sector: road networks (train or rail), transport stations, airports, river and sea bridges, sea walls, etc, that have been affected or destroyed.

Communications
Qualitative field in the database. It has two options: Affected or Not Affected. It relates to damages to the communication sector: plants and telephone networks, radio and television stations, post offices and public information offices, internet services, radio telephones and mobile phones.

Aid organisation installations
Qualitative field in the database. It has two options: Affected or Not Affected. It relates to damages to the emergency response sector, specifically to the aid organisms’ installations: Fire fighters and other aid organisms and to entities of public order.

Agriculture and fishing
Qualitative field in the database. It has two options: Affected or Not Affected. It relates to damaged to the Agriculture and Fishing sector: crops, granaries, pastoral zones.

Water supply
Qualitative field in the database. It has two options: Affected or Not Affected. It relates to damages to the aqueduct sector: water outlets, water treatment plants, aqueducts and canals which carry drinking water, storage tanks.

Sewerage
Qualitative field in the database. It has two options: Affected or Not Affected. It relates to damages to the sewage sector: sewage systems and treatment plants.

Education Qualitative field in the database
It has two options: Affected or Not Affected. It relates to damages to the Education sector: everything relating to this sector – pre-schools, kindergartens, schools, colleges, universities, training centres, libraries, cultural centres, etc.

Power/Energy
Qualitative field in the database. It has two options: Affected or Not Affected. It relates to damages to the Energy sector: dams, substations, transmission lines, generators, energy processing plants and combustible stores, pipelines, gas lines, nuclear plants.

Industry
Qualitative field in the database. It has two options: Affected or Not Affected. It relates to damages to the Industrial sector: all types and sizes of industry, including agricultural and fishing plants.

Health Sector
Qualitative field in the database. It has two options: Affected or Not Affected. It relates to damages to the Health sector: everything related to the health sector, including communication networks, emergency networks (ambulances), casualty centres, etc.

Other
Qualitative field in the database. It has two options: Affected or Not Affected. It relates to damages which do not correspond to any of the fields in the basic record.

Comments (Observations about the disaster)
Notes or detail about the effects of the disaster. This field should be used to register discrepancies between effect figures when there is more than one source.