The Hyogo Framework is a global 10-year plan to make the world safer from natural hazards adopted in January 2005 by 168 Governments at the World Conference on Disaster Reduction in Hyogo, Japan. Its goal is to substantially reduce disaster losses by 2015 - in lives, and in the social, economic, and environmental assets of communities and countries.

The World Health Organization Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean produced the WHO e-Atlas of disaster risk for the Eastern Mediterranean Region, Volume 1: Exposure to natural hazards. The e-Atlas uses geographic information systems and various disaster models to assist disaster management decision-makers to reduce health risks to vulnerable populations due to emergencies and health crises. This tool can be used to help predict the magnitude of a disaster on a specific population, to assess where damage might be the greatest and to forecast specific resources which may be required.

For Syria, the e-Atlas contains a set of maps and supporting documents explaining methodology and providing metadata that illustrate the distribution of natural hazards (earthquakes, floods, heat, wind, and landslides), as well as estimates of the sizes of populations exposed to such hazards.

WHO e-Atlas of disaster risk for the Eastern Mediterranean Region