Damage and Loss Assessments

Damage and Loss Assessment (DaLA) Methodology

The Damage and Loss Assessment (DaLA) Methodology was initially developed by the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (UN-ECLAC) in 1972. It has since been improved through close cooperation of WHO, PAHO, World Bank, Inter American Development Bank, UNESCO, ILO to capture the closest approximation of damage and losses due to disaster events. It is a flexible tool  that can be adapted to specific disaster types and government ownership requirements. The DaLA Methodology bases its assessments on the overall economy of the affected country. It uses the national accounts and statistics of the country government as baseline data to assess damage and loss.  It also factors in the impact of disasters on individual livelihoods and incomes to fully define the needs for recovery and reconstruction.

A DaLA includes the following:

• Damage as the replacement value of totally or partially destroyed physical assets;
  
• Losses in the flows of the economy that arise from the temporary absence of the damaged assets; and,
  
• The resultant impact on post-disaster macroeconomic performance, with special reference to economic growth/GDP, the balance of payments and fiscal situation of the Government.
  Manuals and Guidelines

Handbook for Estimating the Socio-economic and Environmental Effects of Disasters - United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), 2003. The methodology is available in   Spanish, French, and Japanese. The World Bank, under the umbrella of the ProVention Consortium, provided inputs and resources during the publishing of this handbook.

• Introduction (PDF - 554 KB)
• Methodology (PDF - 446 KB)
• Population Affected (PDF - 1.41 MB)
• Housing and Education (PDF - 221 KB)
• Health (PDF - 488 KB)
• Energy (PDF - 412 KB)
• Drinking Water and Sanitation (PDF - 270 KB)
• Transport and Communications (PDF - 276 KB)
• Agriculture (PDF - 796 KB)
• Trade and Industry (PDF - 522 KB)
• Tourism (PDF - 493 KB)
• Environment (PDF - 2.09 MB)
• Women (PDF - 577 KB)
• Damage Overview (PDF - 488 KB)
• Macroeconomics (PDF - 1.23 MB)
• Employment and Income (PDF - 271 KB)
• Doing More For Those Made Homeless by Natural Disasters, October 2001, (PDF - 0.267 MB)

Find more assessments at GFDRR-Track III

Damage and Needs Assessment Reports from Yr. 1999 - 2006 

• Indonesia Post-earthquake Damage and Loss Assessment for Central Java and Yogyakarta - June 2006
• Pakistan 2005 Earthquake: Preliminary Damage and Needs Assessment - November 2005
• India Post-Tsunami Damage and Needs Assessment - March, 2005
• Maldives Post-Tsunami Damage and Needs Assessment - February, 2005
• Sri Lanka Post-Tsunami Damage and Needs Assessment - February, 2005
• Indonesia Post-Tsunami Damage and Needs Assessment - January, 2005
• Guyana Flood Needs Assessment - January, 2005
• Grenada Hurricane Ivan Assessment - September, 2004
• Gujarat Earthquake Assessment - March, 2001 
• El impacto socioeconomico y ambiental de la sequia de 2001 en centromamerica - February, 2001
• El Salvador Earthquake Assessment  - January, 2001
• Belize: Assessment of the damage caused by Hurricane Keith (PDF - 1 MB) Annex: List of project files (PDF - 0.21 MB) - November, 2000
• Mozambique: Preliminary Assessment of Damage from the Flood and Cyclone Emergency - March, 2000
• Turkey Marmara Earthquake (PDF - 0.82 MB) - September, 1999