Desinventar

Desinventar is a conceptual and methodological tool for generating national disaster databases that provides access to disaster effects information at various scales. It is maintained by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR).

Collection: `desinventar-events`

A STAC collection holds all Desinventar events. The example collection is at examples/desinventar-events/desinventar-events.json.

Name: Desinventar Event Data
Code: Desinventar
Source organisation: United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR)
Source code: UNDRR
Source Type: International Organization
Source organization email: desinventar@un.org
Source URL: https://www.desinventar.net
Source Data license: License
Source for: event, hazard, impact

Data

Desinventar data is available as downloadable ZIP files containing:

An XML file with event data (DI_export_{country_code}.xml)
Shapefiles for administrative boundaries
Additional metadata files

API Endpoints

Base URL: https://www.desinventar.net
Export endpoint: https://www.desinventar.net/DesInventar/download/DI_export_{country_code}.zip

The country code must be provided in lowercase (e.g., 'npl' for Nepal).

The zip archive contains the following files:

DI_export_{country_code}.xml: Event data in Desinventar XML format
district.shp/dbf/prj/shx: Shapefiles for disctrict administrative boundaries
region.shp/dbf/prj/shx: Shapefiles for region administrative boundaries
village.shp/dbf/prj/shx: Shapefiles for village administrative boundaries

XML Data

The XML file is structured as follows:

<DESINVENTAR>
    <datamodel>
        <!-- Data model definition -->
    </datamodel>
    <eventos>
        <!-- Event type list -->
    </eventos>
    <causas>
        <!-- Hazard type (Cause) list -->
    </causas>
    <niveles>
        <!-- Administrative level list -->
    </niveles>
    <lev0>
        <!-- Top-level administrative names list -->
    </lev0>
    <lev1>
        <!-- First-level administrative names list -->
    </lev1>
    <lev2>
        <!-- Second-level administrative names list -->
    </lev2>
    <regiones>
        <!-- Administrative boundaries (bounding boxes) for each administrative name -->
    </regiones>
    <diccionario>
        <!-- Taxonomy of impact categories -->
    </diccionario>
    <fichas>
        <!-- Event data -->
    </fichas>
    <level_maps>
        <!-- Shapefile listing -->
    </level_maps>
</DESINVENTAR>

Each disaster event is stored as a `<TR>` element within the `<fichas>` section:

```xml
<fichas>
    <TR>
        <serial>194</serial>
        <level0>GRD</level0>              <!-- Country code -->
        <level1>GRD01</level1>            <!-- Region code -->
        <level2>GRD01001</level2>         <!-- District code -->
        <name0>Grenada</name0>            <!-- Country name -->
        <name1>Saint George</name1>       <!-- Region name -->
        <name2>Saint George City</name2>  <!-- District name -->
        <evento>STORM</evento>            <!-- Hazard type -->
        <lugar>National - TS Ernesto</lugar> <!-- Location description -->

        <!-- Temporal information -->
        <fechano>2012</fechano>
        <fechames>8</fechames>
        <fechadia>3</fechadia>
        <duracion>0</duracion>            <!-- Duration in days -->

        <!-- Impact metrics -->
        <muertos>0</muertos>              <!-- Deaths -->
        <heridos>0</heridos>              <!-- Injured -->
        <desaparece>0</desaparece>        <!-- Missing -->
        <damnificados>0</damnificados>    <!-- Directly affected -->
        <afectados>0</afectados>          <!-- Indirectly affected -->
        <vivdest>0</vivdest>              <!-- Houses destroyed -->
        <vivafec>0</vivafec>              <!-- Houses damaged -->
        <evacuados>0</evacuados>          <!-- Evacuated -->
        <reubicados>0</reubicados>        <!-- Relocated -->
        <valorus>0</valorus>              <!-- Losses in USD -->
        <valorloc>0</valorloc>            <!-- Losses in local currency -->
        <nhectareas>0</nhectareas>        <!-- Crop area damaged (ha) -->
        <cabezas>0</cabezas>              <!-- Cattle lost -->
        <kmvias>0</kmvias>                <!-- Roads damaged (m) -->

        <!-- Additional information -->
        <magnitud2></magnitud2>           <!-- Hazard magnitude -->
        <glide></glide>                   <!-- GLIDE number if available -->
        <latitude>0</latitude>
        <longitude>0</longitude>
    </TR>
</fichas>

Event Item

A Desinventar event will ALWAYS produce an event STAC item.

Example event items for grenada export at DI_export_GRD.xml:

Here is the mapping of fields from Desinventar XML to STAC event items:

STAC field	Desinventar field	Description
id	level0 (lower case) + '-' + serial	Unique identifier combining country code and event serial
geometry	Based on shapefile data using level2/level1/level0	Geometry derived from administrative boundaries (when admin level info is missing, get the geometry from iso3 using Geocoding service)
bbox	Calculated from geometry	Bounding box of the event area
datetime	fechano, fechames, fechadia	Date of the event
start_datetime	fechano, fechames, fechadia	Start date of the event
end_datetime	fechano, fechames, fechadia + [duracion]	End date of the event
title	evento + lugar + date	Human-readable title combining event type and location
monty:episode_number	1	Set to 1 as Desinventar doesn't track episodes
monty:country_codes	level0	ISO3 code of the event country
monty:hazard_codes	mapped from evento	Hazard codes mapped from Desinventar event types (see mapping below)
monty:corr_id	Generated	Generated following the event correlation convention
processing:version	Generated	Semantic version of the transformer that generated the item, via the `processing:` extension
processing:software	Generated	Dependency/provenance chain (`{"pystac-monty": "<version>"}`), via the `processing:` extension
monty:src_event_id	Source event ID

Hazard Code Mapping

DesInventar uses its own hazard classification and must follow the 2025 UNDRR-ISC code as the reference classification for the Monty extension. Raw evento values from the source are messy — typos, translations, capitalization variants, legacy codes — so the transformer resolves them in two steps (see desinventar.py):

Normalization — the raw evento value is looked up in a large alias table (hazard_name_mappings, 300+ entries) that collapses raw variants (e.g. "HURRICANE", "Typhoon", "TC - Tropical Cyclone") down to one canonical event name (e.g. CYCLONE). If no alias matches, the raw value is used as-is.
Code lookup — the canonical event name is looked up in the hazard_mapping table below to get its [UNDRR-ISC 2025, EM-DAT, GLIDE] triplet.

Note

If the canonical event name has no entry in hazard_mapping, or maps to None, the record is dropped — no event item is produced for it. See Unmapped events below.

The following table provides cross-classification across multiple systems, per taxonomy.md and HazardProfiles.csv:

DesInventar Event	GLIDE	EM-DAT	UNDRR-ISC 2025 (Reference)	Cluster	Description
ACCIDENT	AC	tec-mis-col-col	TL0007 †	TECH-STRFAIL	Structural Failure
Acid rain	OT		EN0105	ENV-AIR	Acid Rain
AFLATOXIN	OT		CH0201	CHEM-CARC	Aflatoxins
Air pollution	OT		EN0102	ENV-AIR	Air Pollution (Point Source)
AIRCRAFT CRASH	AC	tec-tra-air-air	TL0401	TECH-TRANSP	Air Transportation Accident
ALLUVION	MS	nat-hyd-mmw-mud	GH0303	GEO-GFAIL	Flows
ANIMAL ATTACK	OT		BI0604	BIO-OTHER	Human-Wildlife Conflict
ANIMAL DISEASE	OT		BI0301	BIO-ANIMAL	Animal Diseases (Not Zoonoses)
ASPHYXIA	OT		CH0400	CHEM-AGAS	Asphyxiant Gases
AVALANCHE	AV	nat-geo-mmd-ava	MH0801	MH-TERR	Avalanche
BOAT CAPSIZE	AC	tec-tra-wat-wat	TL0050 †	TECH-TRANSP	Marine Accident
BREACH	FL	tec-mis-col-col	TL0205	TECH-STRFAIL	Dam Failure
CHEMICAL SUBSTANCE	OT		CH0903	CHEM-OTHER	Chemical Warfare Agents
Cholera	OT		BI0204	BIO-SPEC	Cholera (Human)
COASTAL EROSION	OT	nat-geo-env-sed	GH0405	GEO-OTHER	Coastal Erosion & Accretion
COASTAL FLOOD	FL	nat-hyd-flo-coa	MH0601	MH-WATER	Coastal Flooding
COLD WAVE	CW	nat-met-ext-col	MH0502	MH-TEMP	Cold Wave
CONFLICT	CE		SO0103	SOC-CONF	Civil Unrest
CONTAMINATION	OT		EN0103	ENV-AIR	Ambient (Outdoor) Air Pollution
CYCLONE	TC	nat-met-sto-tro	MH0309	MH-WIND	Tropical Cyclone
Deforestación	OT		EN0201	ENV-FOREST	Deforestation
DOMESTIC FIRE	FR	tec-ind-fir-fir	TL0305	TECH-INDFAIL	Fire
DROUGHT	DR	nat-cli-dro-dro	MH0401	MH-PRECIP	Drought
DROWNING	AC	tec-tra-wat-wat	TL0403	TECH-TRANSP	Maritime Accident
DZUD	OT	nat-met-ext-sev	MH0503	MH-TEMP	Dzud
EARTHQUAKE	EQ	nat-geo-ear-gro	GH0101	GEO-SEIS	Earthquake
ELECTROCUTION	OT		TL0209	TECH-STRFAIL	Power Outage / Blackout
EPIDEMIC	EP ‡	nat-bio-epi-dis	BI0101	BIO-INFECT	Airborne Diseases (human and Animal)
EPIZOOTIC		nat-bio-ani-ani	BI0027 †	BIO_INFDISANIHUM	Zoonotic Diseases
EROSION	OT	nat-geo-env-soi	GH0403	GEO-OTHER	Soil Erosion
EXPLOSION	AC	tec-ind-exp-exp	TL0029 †	TECH-INDFAIL	Explosion
EXPLOSIONS	AC	tec-ind-exp-exp	TL0304	TECH-INDFAIL	Explosion
FIRE	WF	nat-cli-wil-wil	EN0205	ENV-FOREST	Wildfires
FISSURES	EQ	nat-geo-ear-gro	GH0311	GEO-GFAIL	Surface Rupture & Fissure
FLASH FLOOD	FF	nat-hyd-flo-fla	MH0603	MH-WATER	Flash Flooding
FLOOD	FL	nat-hyd-flo-flo	MH0600	MH-WATER	Flooding
FOG	OT	nat-met-fog-fog	MH0202	MH-PART	Fog
FOREST FIRE	WF	nat-cli-wil-for	EN0205	ENV-FOREST	Wildfires
Freezing Rain	OT	nat-met-ext-sev	MH0506	MH-TEMP	Freezing Rain (Supercooled Rain)
FROST	OT	nat-met-ext-sev	MH0505	MH-TEMP	Frost (Hoar Frost)
GALE	OT		MH0303	MH-WIND	Gale
GAS SPILLS	AC	tec-ind-gas-gas	TL0301	TECH-INDFAIL	Leaks and Spills
GLACIAL LAKE OUTBURST FLOOD	FL	nat-cli-glo-glo	MH0607	MH-WATER	Glacial Lake Outburst Flooding
GUNSHOT	OT		SO0301	SOC-BEH	Violence
HAIL STORM	ST	nat-met-sto-hai	MH0404	MH-PRECIP	Hail
HEAT WAVE	HT	nat-met-ext-hea	MH0501	MH-TEMP	Heatwave
HEAVY RAINS	OT		MH0402	MH-PRECIP	Rain
Hundimiento	OT	nat-geo-mmd-sub	GH0308	GEO-GFAIL	Sinkhole
INTOXICACION	OT		CH0601	CHEM-FOOD	Levels of Contaminants in Food & Feed
LAHAR	VO	nat-geo-vol-lah	GH0204	GEO-VOLC	Lahars
LAND DEGRADATION	OT		EN0301	ENV-LAND	Land Degradation
LANDSLIDE	LS	nat-geo-mmd-lan	GH0300	GEO-GFAIL	Gravitational Mass Movement (Landslide)
LEAK	AC	tec-ind-che-che	TL0030 †	TECH-INDFAIL	Leaks and Spills
LEAK OR SPILL	AC	tec-ind-che-che	TL0301	TECH-INDFAIL	Leaks and Spills
LIGHTNING	ST	nat-met-sto-lig	MH0102	MH-CONV	Lightning (electrical storm)
LIQUEFACTION	EQ	nat-geo-ear-gro	GH0307	GEO-GFAIL	Liquefaction
LOCUST CRISIS	IN	nat-bio-inf-loc	BI0402	BIO-INSECT	Locust
MALARIA	OT		BI0219	BIO-SPEC	Malaria (Human)
MEASLE	OT		BI0221	BIO-SPEC	Measles (Human)
MENINGITIS	OT		BI0222	BIO-SPEC	Meningococcal Meningitis (Human)
MINING HAZARD	OT		TL0307	TECH-INDFAIL	Mining Hazards
Mpox	OT		BI0224	BIO-SPEC	Mpox (Human)
Nuclear accidents	OT		TL0208	TECH-STRFAIL	Nuclear Plant Failure
PEST	IN	nat-bio-inf-loc	BI0401	BIO-INSECT	Insect Pest Infestations
PLAGUE	OT		BI0228	BIO-SPEC	Plague (Human)
POLLUTION	OT		TL0302	TECH-INDFAIL	Pollution
Racionamiento	OT		TL0210	TECH-STRFAIL	Water Supply Failure
RAIN	OT		MH0402	MH-PRECIP	Rain
RIVER FLOOD	FL	nat-hyd-flo-riv	MH0604	MH-WATER	Fluvial (Riverine) Flooding
RIVERBANK EROSION	OT		GH0404	GEO-OTHER	River Erosion & Accretion
ROAD ACCIDENT	AC	tec-tra-roa-roa	TL0405	TECH-TRANSP	Road Traffic Accident
ROCK FALL	OT		GH0301	GEO-GFAIL	Falls
SANDSTORM	VW	nat-met-sto-san	MH0201	MH-PART	Dust Storm or Sandstorm
SEA LEVEL RISE	OT		EN0402	ENV-WATER	Sea Level Rise
SNAKE BITE	OT		BI0605	BIO-OTHER	Snakebite Envenoming
SNOW STORM	OT		MH0406	MH-PRECIP	Snow Storm
Snowfall	OT		MH0405	MH-PRECIP	Snow
STORM	ST	nat-met-sto-sto	MH0103	MH-CONV	Thunderstorm
STRONG WIND	VW	nat-met-sto-sto	MH0301	MH-WIND	Wind
STRUCT.COLLAPSE	AC	tec-mis-col-col	TL0005 †	TECH-STRFAIL	Building Collapse
STRUCTURE	AC	tec-mis-col-col	TL0201	TECH-STRFAIL	Building Collapse
SUBSIDENCE		nat-geo-ear-gro	GH0309	GEO-GFAIL	Subsidence and Uplift
SURGE	SS	nat-met-sto-sur	MH0703	MH-MARINE	Storm Surge
THUNDERSTORM	ST	nat-met-sto-sto	MH0103	MH-CONV	Thunderstorm
TIDAL WAVES	OT	nat-hyd-wav-rog	MH0701	MH-MARINE	Rogue Wave
TORNADO	TO	nat-met-sto-tor	MH0305	MH-WIND	Tornado
TRAIN CRASH	AC	tec-tra-rai-rai	TL0404	TECH-TRANSP	Rail Accident
TSUNAMI	TS	nat-geo-ear-tsu	MH0705	MH-MARINE	Tsunami
URBAN FLOOD	OT		MH0606	MH-WATER	Surface water Flooding
VOLCANO	VO	nat-geo-vol-vol	GH0205	GEO-VOLC	Volcanic Gases and Aerosols
WETLAND LOSS/DEGRADATION	OT		EN0304	ENV-LAND	Wetland Loss/Degradation
YELLOW FEVER	OT		BI0241	BIO-SPEC	Yellow Fever (Human)

† These six entries still carry pre-2025 UNDRR-ISC codes from the 2020 Hazard Information Profiles (historical reference table in taxonomy.md) that haven't been migrated. Per the Cross-Classification Mapping table in taxonomy.md, their 2025 equivalents are already used by a newer, differently-named entry in this same table: ACCIDENT (TL0007) → TL0201 (see STRUCTURE), BOAT CAPSIZE (TL0050) → TL0403 (see DROWNING), EPIZOOTIC (BI0027) → BI0301 (see ANIMAL DISEASE), EXPLOSION (TL0029) → TL0304 (see EXPLOSIONS), LEAK (TL0030) → TL0301 (see LEAK OR SPILL), STRUCT.COLLAPSE (TL0005) → TL0201 (see STRUCTURE).

‡ EPIDEMIC's GLIDE code is corrected to EP here. The upstream hazard_mapping dict currently has OT, which conflicts with the Cross-Classification Mapping table in taxonomy.md, where BI0101 + nat-bio-epi-dis maps to GLIDE EP. See IFRCGo/pystac-monty#201 for the upstream fix.

Note

All three classification codes (GLIDE, EM-DAT, UNDRR-ISC 2025) should be included in the monty:hazard_codes array for maximum interoperability, when all three are available for that row. More specific hazard codes can be added following the characteristics of the event.

This mapping enables standardized hazard categorization while preserving DesInventar's original classification in the source properties.

Unmapped events

The following canonical DesInventar events have no hazard code mapping (hazard_mapping returns None, including OTHER/OT - Other-style catch-alls). Records with these event types — plus any raw evento value with neither an alias nor a direct mapping — are dropped entirely: no event, hazard, or impact item is produced for them.

ANIN BOT, ARBOL CAIDO, AUTHER, BÚSQUEDA, Búsqueda, CAÍDA DE ARBOL, Caída de Arbol, CLIMATE CHANGE, Desaparecido (S), DROPP OFF, EXTREME TEMPERATURE, FAILEN TREES, FALL INTO A WELL, FAMINE, Famine, Food Insecurity, Geomedical, Hambruna, HAILSTONE, HIGH TIDE, HUNGER/FAMINE, INDUSTRIAL DISASTER, LAINNYA, LALORAN BOOT, Livestock, Mal uvuljuulekh, MALNUTRITION, Malnutrition, Napolo, Nawaa, OT - Other, OTHER, OTHER_AC, Other, PANIC, PEAT, PORT AREA HAZARD, PROJECTILE, Rescate, RESCATE, Riverinflood, Road, Stormy, Stuck, TD - Technical Disaster, Traslados, TREE FALLEN, W, birds, incursion

Hazard Item

No hazard items are generated from Desinventar data as the hazard information is almost never available (magnitud2 field is empty) and when available, it is hardly standardized.

Impact Item

Desinventar events will produce multiple impact STAC items when impact data is available.

Example impact items:

EPIDEMIC deaths grd-200-deaths.json

The following table shows the mapping of Desinventar impact fields to STAC items:

Desinventar field	Category	Type	Unit	Description
deaths	ALL_PEOPLE	DEATHS	count	Number of deaths
injured	ALL_PEOPLE	INJURED	count	Number of injured people
missing	ALL_PEOPLE	MISSING	count	Number of missing people
houses_destroyed	BUILDINGS	DESTROYED	count	Houses completely destroyed
houses_damaged	BUILDINGS	DAMAGED	count	Houses partially damaged
directly_affected	ALL_PEOPLE	DIRECTLY_AFFECTED	count	People directly affected
indirectly_affected	ALL_PEOPLE	INDIRECTLY_AFFECTED	count	People indirectly affected
relocated	ALL_PEOPLE	RELOCATED	count	People relocated
evacuated	ALL_PEOPLE	EVACUATED	count	People evacuated
losses_in_dollar	TOTAL_COST_UNSPECIFIED	LOSS_COST	USD	Economic losses in USD
losses_local_currency	TOTAL_COST_UNSPECIFIED	LOSS_COST	Unknown	Economic losses in local currency
damages_in_crops_ha	CROP	DAMAGED	hectare	Crop area damaged
lost_cattle	CATTLE	MISSING	count	Number of cattle lost
damages_in_roads_mts	ALL_PEOPLE	DAMAGED	m	Length of roads damaged

For each available impact metric in the Desinventar data, a separate impact item is created with:

STAC field	Value	Description
id	{level0}-{serial}-{metric}	Unique ID combining event serial and impact metric
title	{event title} -	Title combining event name and impact type
monty:impact_detail		Object containing impact details
monty:impact_detail.category	From mapping table	Impact category code
monty:impact_detail.type	From mapping table	Impact type code
monty:impact_detail.value	From Desinventar field	Numeric impact value
monty:impact_detail.unit	From mapping table	Unit of measurement
monty:impact_detail.estimate_type	"primary"	All Desinventar data is considered primary

The geometry, bbox, datetime and other base fields are inherited from the source event item.