Ecuador teams up with Pacific Disaster Center in its ongoing battle with extreme disasters

04/30/2025

By: Chani Goering Chani Goering

Torrential rain and landslides routinely impact Ecuador, along with several other extreme hazards—wreaking havoc on communities, infrastructure, and causing significant economic impacts.

Photo credit: BBC News

Following months of heavy rains, floods and landslides that triggered an oil spill and environmental catastrophe in Ecuador’s coastal provinces of Esmeraldas, Manabí, and Guayas, government leaders launched a new scientific partnership to help mitigate ongoing disaster risks and losses throughout the country.

The national initiative was kicked off on April 24, 2025, in partnership with Ecuador’s Secretariat for Risk Management, Secretaría de Gestión de Riesgos (SNGR), the U.S. Southern Command, and the Pacific Disaster Center (PDC) of the University of Hawaiʻi. The partnership project will aid the nation with critical data development and analytical insights to guide disaster risk reduction priorities and decision-making nationwide.

PDC will develop and deliver the National Disaster Preparedness Baseline Assessment (NDPBA) in close collaboration with stakeholders throughout the nation, offering a subnational scale of analysis, as well as a comprehensive assessment of national disaster management capacities. PDC is recognized globally for its application of advanced science and technological tools and has supported countries around the world in operationalizing the use of risk information in daily decision-making.

A diverse group of Ecuadorian stakeholders participated in the virtual kick-off for the national baseline assessment project, representing numerous scientific, academic, nongovernmental, and governmental agencies.

Photo credit: Pacific Disaster Center

The initial ceremony for the year-long national baseline assessment was conducted virtually with PDC and over twenty national stakeholder organizations in attendance, including Ecuador’s Secretariat for Risk Management (SNGR), University of the Armed Forces (ESPE), National Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology (INAMHI), Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Education, Military Geographical Institute and others, who participated in a group exchange about areas of focus, current challenges, and priorities for the upcoming assessment.

“The NDPBA, recognized by the United Nations, helps us to not only evaluate our current conditions, but also project and implement sustainable actions for the next five years.”

Andrea Hermenejildo

Photo credit: LinkedIn

“I want to thank the U.S. Embassy and representatives from the PDC who join us from around the world. The NDPBA, recognized by the United Nations, helps us to not only evaluate our current conditions, but also project and implement sustainable actions for the next five years. This will be possible thanks to a collaborative focus and active engagement from ministries, government agencies, international cooperation, and civil society,” said Andrea Hermenejildo, Sub Secretary, Vice-Minister of SNGR.

Ecuador is highly susceptible to a wide range of natural disasters due to its geography and hydrological conditions, as well as its location on the Pacific Rim of Fire. The national risk profile includes threats from earthquakes, landslides, volcanic activity, floods, tsunami, drought, wildfire, extreme heat, and potentially others identified as part of this assessment.

To help the nation contend with these challenges, PDC’s national baseline assessment program lead, Mr. Tim Luft, PDC NDPBA Program Manager and Technical Advisor, shared PDC’s capabilities and technologies and how they can support Ecuador in achieving its goals of lowered risk and reduced disaster impacts.

Pictured: PDC’s DisasterAWARE Event Brief reports likely impacts following a ecent M6.3 earthquake in the Esmeraldas region of Ecuador. Event Brief is a near real-time analytics report that is generated by DisasterAWARE within minutes for every hazard in the system globally. Event Brief utilizes national baseline assessment data and PDC’s exclusive all-hazards modeling capabilities to provide fast and accurate insights to decision makers about the potential impacts of hazards.

Photo credit: LinkedIn

“It is an honor to be working with Ecuador to tackle the very serious and difficult challenges it, and many others in the region, are facing from extreme disaster impacts. From recent severe weather, flooding, landslides, earthquakes, and man-made disasters, these events have the potential to inflict prolonged suffering, economic setbacks, and destabilization that can have lasting effects. Ecuador is the 34th country we’ve partnered with to help assess and identify the most significant drivers of disaster risk and national disaster management capacities. Together, through the important information we gain from the assessment and this partnership, decision makers will be better equipped to align disaster risk reduction and capacity development strategies to achieve greater loss-reduction outcomes and save more lives,” said Luft.

Luft also emphasized the unique access stakeholders of the assessment gain to the Center’s cutting-edge DisasterAWARE platform. Through DisasterAWARE, all of the data from the assessment is integrated, visualized, and provided back to decision makers at no cost for use in disaster management planning, preparedness, response, and recovery. The platform utilizes results of the assessment to provide enhanced multi-hazard early warning information and automated Event Brief analytics within minutes to decision makers—offering the most reliable, scientific information to help anticipate the likely impacts of hazards as soon as they’re reported.

In addition to the new baseline risk and disaster management capacity assessment with PDC, Ecuador recently adopted a national policy, the Organic Law for Comprehensive Disaster Risk Management in 2024, mandating long-term planning, decentralized governance, and enhanced early warning systems. PDC hopes to support Ecuador’s commitment to long-term risk reduction and its national new policy by providing the necessary tools, scientific risk assessment data, and enhanced early warning capabilities to help reduce disaster risks throughout the nation.

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Ecuador teams up with Pacific Disaster Center in its ongoing battle with extreme disasters

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