Global, regional and national best practices on BIPAD Portal related similar DIMS Platform and lessons learned for Nepal

This report presents information on constituents and components of some well-recognized global, regional, and national Disaster Information Management System (DIMS). These components have been studied for their core features and impacts created, from which learnings have been compiled as suggestions for inclusion in the BIPAD portal. As different countries and regions follow different frameworks of DRRM and have different approaches towards DRRM, diverse ways of collecting, disseminating, and using information can be found in such DIMS. A comparative study of the DIMS platforms could help establish a clear understanding of key components required in a standard DIMS. This report attempts at identifying such key components and presents the components that are relevant in the context of Nepal as recommendations for the BIPAD portal.

This research takes several DIMS platforms as references including the Japan-Bosai Platform, Global Risk Data Platform, INFORM, Desinventar, Pacific Disaster Centre, and other popular platforms. This paper presents recommendations in a few aspects of the BIPAD portal relating to features, user interface elements and data download ability that help increase the usability, accessibility, and effectiveness of the platform. BIPAD portal categorizes hazards into some basic categories viz. Natural and Non-natural hazards, which it references from the Nepal Government’s DRR portal. Further categorization of some hazards could also be done (e.g., hydrometeorological hazards, technological hazards, environmental hazards, etc.) to better organize disaster data and make the platform more streamlined. Also, a separate section could be provided in the BIPAD portal for containing detailed information on various terminologies and the symbology used in the platform.