Cambodia is prone to a number of natural disasters including flood, lightening, drought, fire, storm, epidemics, pest outbreak and river bank collapse. Yet little was known about the impact of disasters at national and sub-national levels due to a lack of systematic organization and collection of information. There was general lack of reliable information about disaster losses and damage in line ministries and the few existing data sets were not well organized in a systematic manner to assist in useful analysis.

Responding to this challenge, the Cambodia Disaster Loss and Damage Information System (CamDI) was developed to collect, store and analyze disaster loss and damage data, and to improve understanding of risks and vulnerabilities. This will guide future interventions aimed at reducing disaster risks.

A technical team from the National Committee for Disaster Management (NCMD) and UNDP was established to collect data about disasters from various agencies at commune, district, provincial and national levels. Data collection efforts were spread over several months and resulted in some 7,800 records of disaster events covering the period from 1996 to 2013. The data was used to undertake analysis at various levels using different techniques, such as temporal, spatial and composition analysis to identity various aspects and characteristics of impacts.