At the HNPW 2026, GDACS is hosting two public sessions:

• From a global tool to a regional enabler: the future evolution of GDACS
  10 Mar 26 14:00-15:30 UTC+1 (Pleniere E) - Organized by: European Commission (JRC, ECHO), UN OCHA, UNITAR/UNOSAT
• Strengthening regional early action systems through global science and innovation
  12 Mar 26 11:00-12:30 UTC+1 (Pleniere F) - Organized by European Commission (JRC, ECHO, CNECT), WMO (WCM), WFP, PDC, UN OCHA, UNITAR/UNOSAT

When a disaster strikes, time and collaboration are crucial to support the people in need.

In 2004 the United Nations and the European Commission joint their effort to develop the Global Disaster Awareness and Coordination System (GDACS), to provide the international humanitarian community with timely notifications of natural hazard events that could evolve into a disaster, and to improve the coordination of the humanitarian preparedness and response.

The 3 components of the system aim to provide the information needed to decision makers to take informative decision: the Multi-Hazard Early Warning System to promptly notify the humanitarian community, the Virtual On-Site Operational Coordination Centre (Virtual OSOCC) to real-time exchange disaster information, and the Satellite Mapping and Coordination System (SMSC) to support coordination amongst different mapping groups providing satellite imagery analysis and maps.

For the last 22 years, the system processed more than 140 000 events and provided a collaboration platform to share real-time information across a community of more than 35 000 people around the world.

Innovative technologies are evolving fast, and GDACS is constantly updated to stay fit for purpose, but the key message is always the same: “Collaboration is crucial to improve the effectiveness of disaster response”.

Check-out an introductory video on the range of GDACS activities from the GDACS website:

https://www.gdacs.org/Images/gdacs_20th/Video/10th_draft.mp4