Handbook for Disaster Assessment

The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) has been a pioneer in the field of disaster assessment and in the development and dissemination of a disaster assessment methodology. Its approach involves estimating the effects of a disaster on assets (damage) and economic flows (losses and additional costs) and takes account of the economic, social and environmental impacts of disasters.
ECLAC studies in this area respond to the need to estimate the financial costs of a disaster with a view to determining the amount of sector-specific funding needed for recovery and reconstruction efforts (including riskprevention measures) to restore a country or a region to its pre-disaster situation.