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GDACS smart home integration, free and open source

GDACS integration for Gladys Assistant

Worldwide disaster alerts (earthquakes, cyclones, floods…) near your home, from GDACS.

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Follow the major natural disasters of the world from Gladys: earthquakes, tropical cyclones, floods, volcanic eruptions, droughts and forest fires, as rated by GDACS (Global Disaster Awareness and Coordination System, a cooperation of the United Nations and the European Commission). Each event gets a green, orange or red alert level, according to its expected humanitarian impact.

The integration keeps the events of your area: a radius around your house, the countries you choose, and, if you wish, every red alert in the world (family abroad, travels). No account, no API key.

This is a complement, not a safety alert system: in an emergency, follow the instructions of your local authorities. Not affiliated with GDACS, the European Commission or the United Nations.

What you get​

  • A GDACS alerts device: number of active alerts in your area, highest alert level, latest event (in words) and distance of the nearest event, with their history.
  • A dashboard widget listing the current alerts, highest level first, then nearest, each with its GDACS report.
  • Two scene triggers: a new event in your area, and the alert level of an event raised.
  • A scene action that reads the current alerts as one sentence, to send by message or have it read aloud.

Requirements​

  • Gladys Assistant 5.1 or later.
  • Internet access from the Gladys host (the integration reads www.gdacs.org).
  • For the radius around your house: a location for your house in Gladys (Settings → Houses), or coordinates typed in the configuration.

Configuration​

Settings​

SettingWhat it does
Centre latitude and longitudeCentre of the area. Leave both empty to use the location of your house in Gladys. Decimal comma accepted.
Radius100 to 5,000 km around the centre (1,000 km by default).
CountriesISO codes (FR or FRA, separated by commas): the events touching these countries, wherever their centre.
Event typesThe hazards to follow (all six by default).
Minimum alert levelGreen (by default), orange or red.
Red alerts of the whole worldAlso follow every red alert, wherever it is (off by default).
Refresh interval10, 15 (by default), 30 or 60 minutes.
Language of the textsNames of the features (at their creation) and texts sent to the scenes. French by default.

Save, then open the Discover tab of the integration and create the GDACS alerts device. The Show the current alerts button of the configuration lists the alerts of your area right away: a quick way to check the settings.

The followed area​

An event is followed when it is current on GDACS, of a chosen type, at the minimum level or above, and:

  • its point is within the radius of the centre. The point is the one GDACS gives: the epicentre of an earthquake, the current position of a cyclone, the centre of a flood, a drought or a fire;
  • or it touches one of the chosen countries (the list of affected countries GDACS publishes);
  • or it is a red alert and "Red alerts of the whole world" is on.

A drought or a flood can cover thousands of kilometres: its centre may be far from you while your country is affected. Add your country to the Countries setting to catch them.

GDACS levels: green, a limited event, no international assistance expected; orange, assistance may be needed; red, a major disaster. Green does not mean "nothing happened": a magnitude 4.5 earthquake near your home is green.

Device​

FeatureTypeValue
Active alertsCounterNumber of followed events
Highest alert levelRisk0 no alert, 1 green, 2 orange, 3 red (the Gladys risk badge, one step up from the GDACS colour)
Latest eventTextThe newest event, e.g. Orange · Tropical cyclone SIMON-26 250 km/h · México · 3,279 km
Nearest event distanceDistance (km)Distance to the nearest followed event; 20,038 km (the farthest a point can be) without any

Without a centre (no house location and no coordinates), the distance is not published. The values are read in the container every refresh interval: the device is not polled by Gladys.

Dashboard widget​

GDACS alerts: a heading with the number of alerts, then up to 8 events, highest level first, then nearest. Each row shows the type and magnitude, the country and the distance, and the level as a badge. Tap a row to see the GDACS description of the event, its dates and the link to its GDACS report. The footer gives the source and the time of the last reading, and a link to gdacs.org.

Scene triggers​

GDACS: new event in my area fires when an event enters the followed area for the first time: a new earthquake, a cyclone moving closer, a red alert anywhere if chosen. Filters: event types, alert level.

GDACS: alert level raised fires when a followed event goes from green to orange or red, or from orange to red. Filters: event types, new level.

The events already listed when the integration starts for the first time, or when you change its configuration, fire nothing: they are not news. What was seen is kept: a restart fires nothing for the events already seen (an event that appeared while the integration was stopped is news). At most 20 events fire per refresh.

Variables of both triggers: event_type (earthquake, tropical_cyclone, flood, volcano, drought, wildfire), level (green, orange, red), event_type_name and level_name (in words), name (type and magnitude), country, distance_km, summary (one line, like the Latest event feature) and url (GDACS report). The level trigger adds previous_level and previous_level_name.

Scene action​

GDACS: read the current alerts reads GDACS again if the last reading is older than the refresh interval, then returns:

  • text: the alerts in one sentence, e.g. 2 GDACS alerts: Orange · Tropical cyclone SIMON-26 250 km/h in México, 3,279 km away; Green · Earthquake M4.5 in Panama, 182 km away. (5 events at most, then "and N more");
  • count: the number of alerts;
  • max_level: none, green, orange or red.

Scene examples​

  • Message when a big event is near: trigger "GDACS: new event in my area" filtered on orange and red, action "Send a message" with {{triggerEvent.data.summary}} and {{triggerEvent.data.url}}.
  • Morning briefing: every day at 7:30, "GDACS: read the current alerts", then "Send a message" with its text, only if count is above 0.
  • Family abroad: turn on "Red alerts of the whole world", and send a message on every new red event: {{triggerEvent.data.level_name}} alert: {{triggerEvent.data.name}} in {{triggerEvent.data.country}}.
  • A light in the hallway: when "Highest alert level" goes to 2 or more, turn a lamp orange.

Data sources, terms and quotas​

  • Data © GDACS (European Commission JRC and ECHO, UN OCHA and UNOSAT), read from the public GDACS event API, without an account. The source is cited in the widget, as the reuse policy of the European Commission asks.
  • GDACS notifications for earthquakes and cyclones are produced by models, automatically, without human review: they may be wrong, late or incomplete, and the service may be down. They never replace the alerts of local or national authorities, the only ones in charge of warning the population. See the GDACS terms of use.
  • Quotas: GDACS publishes none. The integration asks once per refresh interval (15 minutes by default): one search for droughts and one for the other hazards, 100 events per page, 10 pages at most. On 15/10/2026, a cycle took 5 requests at the green level (270 current events, forest fires mostly) and 2 at the orange level.

Troubleshooting​

  • "No centre" in the configuration: give your house a location in Gladys (Settings → Houses), or type coordinates. The countries and the worldwide red alerts still work without it.
  • "GDACS does not answer": the site is down or unreachable from the Gladys host. The last values stay; the integration tries again at every refresh and says so in its logs once.
  • "GDACS lists too many events": more than 1,000 events matched (forest fires at the green level, mostly). Raise the minimum level or uncheck some types.
  • No trigger after a change of settings: expected, the events already there are not news.
  • The names of the features are in the wrong language: they are set when the device is created. Change the language, delete the device, then create it again from the Discover tab.
  • Logs: the integration page of Gladys, Logs tab. Set LOG_LEVEL=debug for a line per reading.

Limits​

  • The distance is measured to one point of the event, not to its outline: a large flood or fire may reach you while its centre is beyond the radius. Use the Countries setting for those.
  • GDACS covers the major disasters with a potential international impact, not local hazards (storms, local floods, heat waves): for those, see the official alerts of your country.
  • Country and event names come from GDACS, in English.
  • The tsunami alerts of GDACS are part of its earthquake events; they are not listed apart.
  • Developed and tested against the real GDACS service; feedback on real alerts is welcome on the forum.

Configuration settings​

These are the settings GDACS asks for in its configuration screen in Gladys.

SettingTypeRequiredDescription
Your areasectionNoGDACS rates the major natural disasters of the world green, orange or red. Choose the area to follow: a radius around your house (or around coordinates), and countries. Save, then create the device in the Discover tab.
Sources and limitssectionNoData © GDACS (European Commission JRC, UN OCHA), read without an account. A complement, not a safety alert system: follow the instructions of your local authorities. Not affiliated with GDACS.
Centre latitudestringNoLeave both coordinates empty to use the location of your house in Gladys.
Centre longitudestringNoDecimal degrees, east positive.
RadiusselectNoDistance from the centre to the point GDACS gives: the epicentre, the position of a cyclone, the centre of a flood, a drought or a fire.
CountriesstringNoAlso follow the events touching these countries, wherever their centre: ISO codes separated by commas (FR or FRA). Useful for droughts and floods, which cover large areas.
Event typesmulti_selectNo
Minimum alert levelselectNoGreen: minor event, no international help expected. Orange: help may be needed. Red: major disaster.
Red alerts of the whole worldbooleanNoAlso follow every red alert, wherever it is: family abroad, travels.
Refresh intervalselectNoGDACS publishes an earthquake about 20 minutes after it, and updates cyclones every 6 hours.
Language of the textsselectNoNames of the features (at their creation) and texts sent to the scenes.

How to install GDACS in Gladys​

  1. In Gladys, open Integrations: GDACS appears in the catalog, next to the native integrations, with a community badge.
  2. Click Install. Gladys pulls the Docker image (ghcr.io/guim31/gladys-gdacs:1.0.0), starts it in a sandbox isolated from the core, and generates the integration's interface (devices, discovery and configuration).
  3. Open the Configuration screen of the integration, fill in the settings, and save.
  4. You can also install it directly from its repository URL: https://github.com/guim31/gladys-gdacs.

GDACS requires Gladys >=5.1.0. The catalog inside Gladys refreshes every hour, so a new version becomes available at most one hour after its release.

Not running Gladys yet? It is free and open source: follow the installation guide to get started.

About external integrations​

GDACS is an external integration: a community integration packaged as a Docker container and published on GitHub, that Gladys installs in one click and runs in a sandbox isolated from its core. It is published and maintained by guim31, not by the Gladys core team.

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