EA Impact Events - EM-DAT Disaster Mapping for East Africa

Process EM-DAT disaster data (drought and flood events) for the 11 ICPAC East Africa countries, assign admin2 boundary codes, and generate frequency maps.

Quick Start

# Step 1: Run geocoding (assigns admin2 codes to events)
python 01-common_adm2_code_drought.py
python 02-common_adm2_code_flood.py

# Step 2: Generate all visualizations
python main.py

Files to Run

Order	Script	Purpose	Output
1	01-common_adm2_code_drought.py	Geocode drought events	em_dat_ea_drought_adm2_v4.xlsx
2	02-common_adm2_code_flood.py	Geocode flood events	em_dat_ea_flood_adm2_v2.xlsx
3	main.py	Generate all visualizations	Output/ folder

Alternative (simplified):

python ea_impact_events.py  # Uses admin1 level (less detailed)

Input Files Required

File	Description
public_emdat_custom_request_2026-01-21.xlsx	EM-DAT disaster data
ea_adm2_geoboundaries.shp	GEOBoundaries admin2 shapefile (972 regions)
icpac_adm1v3.geojson	ICPAC admin1 boundaries (fallback)

Output Files

After running the pipeline:

Output/
├── dr/                              # 36 yearly drought maps (1990-2025)
├── fl/                              # 36 yearly flood maps (1990-2025)
├── choropleth_drought_frequency.png # Drought frequency map
├── choropleth_flood_frequency.png   # Flood frequency map
├── drought_calendar_plot_enhanced.png
├── flood_calendar_plot_enhanced.png
├── drought_combined_PIL_enhanced.png
└── flood_combined_PIL_enhanced.png

Countries Covered (ICPAC East Africa)

Code	Country
BDI	Burundi
DJI	Djibouti
ERI	Eritrea
ETH	Ethiopia
KEN	Kenya
RWA	Rwanda
SDN	Sudan
SOM	Somalia
SSD	South Sudan
TZA	Tanzania
UGA	Uganda

Current Status

Disaster	Events	Geocoded	Regions Affected
Drought	80	80 (100%)	170 admin2
Flood	368	368 (100%)	424 admin2

Documentation

See GEOCODING_DOCUMENTATION.md for detailed information on:

• Geocoding methodology
• Data flow and processing steps
• Frequency map generation
• Routine operations for new data

Project Structure

ea-impact-events/
├── Input Data
│   ├── public_emdat_custom_request_2026-01-21.xlsx
│   ├── ea_adm2_geoboundaries.shp
│   └── icpac_adm1v3.geojson
│
├── Geocoding Scripts
│   ├── 01-common_adm2_code_drought.py
│   └── 02-common_adm2_code_flood.py
│
├── Geocoded Output
│   ├── em_dat_ea_drought_adm2_v4.xlsx
│   └── em_dat_ea_flood_adm2_v2.xlsx
│
├── Visualization
│   ├── main.py
│   ├── utils.py
│   ├── ea_impact_events.py (simplified alternative)
│   └── Output/
│
└── Documentation
    ├── README.md
    └── GEOCODING_DOCUMENTATION.md

Monty-STAC Way Forward

East Africa Impact events will be enhanced through monty-STAC specifications, adding admin boundaries for integration with STAC-based Analysis Ready Cloud Optimized IBF.

The exploration on monty-STAC is documented at arco-ibf/monty-stac.

References

• EM-DAT Database
• GEOBoundaries
• ICPAC Impact Events Blog