Hazus News and Events

Are you interested in learning how to use Hazus open-source tools for effective mitigation planning? Check out recordings of our latest Hazus Quarterly Webinars below.

• Fall 2020 Webinar: Understanding Economic Risk from Coastal Floods in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Learn about the spatial distribution of economic risk from coastal flooding for existing and sea level rise conditions and identifies high-risk areas in the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico to help planners prioritize mitigation planning initiatives.
• Summer 2020 Webinar: How to Value the Risk Reduction Benefits of Natural Infrastructure: A Florida Case Study. Learn about how protecting natural infrastructure, like coral reefs, is a cost-effective strategy for risk reduction in coastal communities.
• Spring 2020 Webinar: Assessing Future Risk Across Colorado. Learn about Colorado's newest statewide risk assessment project considers data from climate change scenarios to help planners increase community resilience.
• Winter 2019 Webinar: Resilience Planning through Parks in NYC. Learn how parks can serve as a cost-effective strategy to increase community flood resilience.

The Hazus Team is excited to announce the release of new open-source tools and updated nationwide data for use in risk assessment projects across the United States.

• Flood Assessment Structure Tool (FAST): FAST is an open-source tool that rapidly analyzes building-level flood risk using the Hazus flood model methodology. FEMA designed FAST to make building-specific flood risk assessments quicker, simpler, and more resource effective.
• Hazus Export tool: Hazus Export is an open-source tool for a quick and easy extraction of Hazus results. This aids in visualizing risk assessment results to support risk communication and a deeper analysis.
• New Inventory Data: New baseline statewide risk assessment databases for U.S. territories and updated infrastructure data nationwide are now available for download. Updates to the infrastructure data include information about bridges and critical facilities. These updates will substantially increase the accuracy of Hazus risk analysis projects.

The Hazus Team demonstrated the importance of recent nationwide infrastructure data updates by performing a comparative analysis of the Rose Canyon San Diego Earthquake Scenario. The results were unveiled during this year's National Earthquake Conference. Analysis results showed a 10% increase in losses driven by the newer infrastructure data, as well as a complete shift in bridge performance. This highlights the importance of using accurate risk information to identify the best mitigation opportunities.

Hazus program partners and the Homeland Infrastructure Foundation-Level Data (HIFLD) program updated nationwide point and segment locations for infrastructure layers. They developed an automated process to ensure all Hazus facility and infrastructure layers are updated annually using the latest available data directly from HIFLD.

The Hazus Risk Assessment Symposium is a biennial meeting that brings together about 100 attendees from the risk assessment community. Attendees engage in presentations and panel discussions on the future of hazard and risk information. The symposium is designed to help risk assessment and mitigation experts discuss innovative risk analysis techniques, incorporating risk data into mitigation and policy initiatives, and the future of risk assessment science and technology.

The Hazus Team publishes a quarterly newsletter and hosts a quarterly webinar to inform members of the emergency management community about the latest improvements in risk assessment data, methods, and tools. The quarterly content keeps Hazus stakeholders informed about program efforts and generates productive discussion among risk assessment professionals about best practices. We feature innovative risk assessment projects from communities across the country and abroad.