Microproduct data guidebeginner

GDACS Disaster Alerts

Global multi-hazard disaster alerts for building international emergency monitors that stay linked to official national sources.

Start the guide Open official source

At a glance

Difficulty
Beginner — comfortable for a first prototype
Size
Tiny · ≤0.05 GB
Formats
JSON, GeoJSON
Access
API
API key
Not required
Provider
Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System
Updates
Near real time
Data terms
GDACS terms of use with source acknowledgement

From source to product signal

Test a product idea in four steps

GDACS publishes multi-hazard alerts as a searchable GeoJSON event list. Start with one hazard type and a recent date window. Alerts are modeled impact estimates for humanitarian awareness; they are not official warnings and must not be used for decisions without national or scientific sources.

1

Check the setup

  • Python 3.10 or newer
  • A notebook environment such as Jupyter or Google Colab
  • An internet connection
2

Access the data

  1. 1.Open the GDACS homepage and note the requirement to acknowledge GDACS as the source.
  2. 2.Request the SEARCH event list for earthquakes in a bounded recent window.
  3. 3.Preserve event type, alert level, country, and retrieval time.
Open official source
3

Run the Python example

Install the packages, then run the notebook cell.

python -m pip install pandas requests

import pandas as pd
import requests

response = requests.get(
    "https://www.gdacs.org/gdacsapi/api/events/geteventlist/SEARCH",
    params={
        "eventlist": "EQ",
        "fromDate": "2026-07-01",
        "toDate": "2026-08-17",
        "alertlevel": "Orange;Red",
    },
    timeout=30,
)
response.raise_for_status()
features = response.json().get("features", [])
alerts = pd.json_normalize(features)
alerts["retrieved_at_utc"] = pd.Timestamp.now(tz="UTC")
print(alerts.head())
4

Test a useful signal

List recent orange and red earthquake alerts

Test whether GDACS alert levels can power a bounded international hazard inbox.

  1. 01Keep event name, country, alert level, and dates from the GeoJSON properties.
  2. 02Count alerts by country and flag any missing coordinates.
  3. 03State that GDACS is not an official warning service and that each event needs the mandated national source.

Dataset details

Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System is an intergovernmental source. Last verified 2026-08-17. Temporal coverage: continuously updated sudden-onset disaster alerts.

Theme

Environment & Hazards

Domains

Emergency ManagementNatural HazardsHumanitarian Development

Data types

Event DataGeospatial

Tasks

AlertingDisaster MonitoringEvent Analysis

Geography

Global

Formats

JSONGeoJSON

Provider

Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System

Data terms

GDACS terms of use with source acknowledgement