Risk Assessment Starter Kit

The risk assessment is the most data-heavy part of the mitigation plan. It can be hard to find all the information you need. This starter kit provides some basic resources to help you find data to start building your risk assessment.

This database contains records for weather-related hazards. You can search through it by state and county. Click on individual events to view a short narrative that you can use to supplement hazard profiles. Note that records are more complete after 1996.

This page contains an interactive tool. You can use it to explore historic federal disaster declarations by state, county, hazard, and year. An easy-to-use graphic lets you filter by state, county, and hazard type. You can also download the full dataset. Please contact your SHMO for specific disaster declarations in your state.

Hazus provides tools and data to help you estimate risk from earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, and hurricanes. Hazus models combine expertise from many disciplines to create actionable risk information. Risk assessment resources from the Hazus program are always freely available and transparently developed. Hazus requires an ArcGIS license to use.

This is a database for natural hazard risk information. Here, you can search for a historic event, planning scenario, or location like a state, county, or jurisdiction. Then, you can view previously performed analyses and downloadable products.

This site provides open-source local data for common community assets. You can download these data as CSVs, KMLs, or Shapefiles. To support application development and data visualization, you can also access them via web services. This can help you find specific physical community assets.

The U.S. Census provides basic information about each community. You can use this information to find the populations that are most at risk.

This free site has interactive maps, charts, and resources. These tools help communities learn their risks to wildfires.

This database contains information for more than 91,000 dams. It has more than 70 data fields for each dam. This includes the dam’s location, size, purpose, type, last inspection, and regulatory facts. More data are available for some dams. This could be a general description of the dam, a summary of known issues, and planned actions to address those issues. Maps that show possible flooding near dams, also called flood inundation maps, are available for some dams. These maps show where water may go if a dam-related issue occurs. They can also help people who live and work near dams take protective actions.

Data on repetitive loss properties are available from local floodplain administrators and the state floodplain coordinator. If data are not available, the plan can include an estimate of the numbers and types of repetitive loss properties. Repetitive loss information is Privacy Act protected. As such, plans should never include individual names, addresses and claim information. However, plans can include aggregated figures (e.g., the total number of repetitive loss properties by jurisdiction).

Below are some scales for common hazards. This is not a full list of all hazards or possible extents. There are other ways to address extent in your plan.

Hazard	Sub-category	Resource	Description
Dam Failure	-	National Dam Safety Program hazard classifications	This hazard potential classification system for dams is clear, concise, and adaptable to any agency's current system. It lists three classification levels – low, significant, and high – in order of increasing adverse incremental consequences.
Drought	-	U.S. Drought Monitor Scale	The drought scale is much like those that rate hurricanes and tornadoes. The "D-scale" speaks to how unusual a drought episode is.
		Palmer Drought Severity Index	The Palmer Drought Severity Index is a measure of relative dryness or wetness that affects water sensitive economies. It provides data in graphical and tabular formats for the contiguous United States.
		Standardized Precipitation Index	This index characterizes drought on a range of timescales that relate to soil moisture, groundwater, and reservoir storage. It can be compared across regions with different climates.
Earthquake	-	Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale	This scale has many levels to indicate a range of effects. These range from slight shaking to catastrophic destruction. It does not have a mathematical basis. It is a subjective ranking based on observed effects.
		Shakemap	These maps provide near-real-time visual data of ground motion and shaking intensity after significant earthquakes.
Coastal Erosion	Sea Level Rise	Sea Level Trends (millimeter per year)	The sea level trends measured by tide gauges show local relative sea level (RSL) trends. They do not show the global sea level trend. Tide gauge measurements are made with respect to a local fixed reference on land. RSL combines sea level rise and the local vertical land motion.
	Sea Level Rise	Coastal Vulnerability Index (CVI)	This classification is based on geomorphology, regional coastal slope, tide range, wave height, relative sea level rise, and shoreline erosion and accretion rates. These factors and how they relate to one another give a broad overview of regions where sea level rise will likely cause physical changes.
Extreme Temperatures	Extreme Cold	Wind Chill Index	This index uses science and computer modeling to provide a clear and accurate formula for calculating the dangers from winter winds and freezing temperatures.
	Extreme Heat	Heat Index	This index measures how hot it feels when relative humidity is factored in with the actual air temperature.
Flood	-	100-year floodplain definition and location	FEMA produces these flood maps. They are available on the Map Service Center (MSC). They are the official public source for flood hazard information that supports the National Flood Insurance Program. The MSC hosts official flood maps and a range of other flood hazard products.
Hurricane	-	Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale	This scale uses a 1 to 5 rating based on a hurricane’s sustained wind speed. It also estimates potential property damage.
Landslide	-	Landslide incidence	This map inventories landslides and confidence levels in the United States.
Radon	-	Picocuries Per Liter pCi/L	This website describes how radiation from radon is measured using picocuries per liter of air (pCi/L). A pCi is a measure of the rate of radioactive decay of radon.
Severe Weather	Hail	Hailstone size	This scale shows an object-to-size conversion for hail to use in measurement and communication.
	High Winds	Beaufort Wind Scale	This scale is an empirical measure. It relates wind speed to observed conditions at sea or on land.
	Lightning	Annualized Frequency	Annualized frequency is the expected frequency or probability of a hazard occurrence per year.
	Rain	Rainfall per duration	These interactive maps provide precipitation frequency estimates and related information.
Tornadoes	-	Enhanced Fujita Scale	This scale shows the intensity of tornadoes based on the damage they cause.
Volcanoes	-	Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI)	The Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) describes the size of explosive volcanic eruptions based on magnitude and intensity.
Wildfire	-	NWCG Size Class	This scale classifies wildfires based on the number of acres burned.
Winter Storm	Ice Storm	Sperry-Piltz Ice Accumulation Index	This index predicts the projected footprint, total ice buildup, and potential damage from ice storms.
	Nor’easters	Regional Snowfall Index	This scale ranks snowstorms on a scale from 1 to 5. This is based on the size of the storm, the amount of snowfall, and how these factors may affect populations.
	Snow	Snowfall per duration	This tool estimates snowfall in the recent past by combining several datasets into a single analysis.

FEMA Mitigation Planning Program’s foundational webinar to guide state, tribal, territorial and local governments in using data, tools and resources to address climate change, population change, and land use change in mitigation planning.

The National Environmental Modeling and Analysis Center (NEMAC) created the Climate Explorer website. Its goal is to help users explore how climate is projected to change in any county in the United States and its territories. It provides maps and graphs to help users understand the data. It also contains resources to help plan for the impacts of climate change. These resources help users learn where hazards will affect socially vulnerable populations.

This website has many tools for mapping and understanding hazards that relate to climate change. Users can access the CMRA Assessment Tool to view how climate change will affect their area. This tool covers geographies that range in scale from counties to census tracts to tribal lands. It even lets users search by address to see what climate change-related hazards may affect their homes. The CMRA site also has funding opportunities and resources to help users plan for, fund, and carry out hazard mitigation activities.

This tool empowers individuals, governments, and organizations to examine simulated future climate conditions at mid- and end-of-century for a range of climate perils. At some point in the future, ClimRR layers will be integrated into FEMA’s Resilience Analysis and Planning Tool (RAPT), to demonstrate specific and local-scale impacts to people and infrastructure across the country. The portal will contain socio-demographic resilience indicators and open-source infrastructure information. This tool was developed in collaboration with Argonne National Lab, AT&T, and FEMA to provide detailed downscaled climate modeling and provide a user-friendly platform for local use.

Climate Central developed this tool. The tool helps users see the impact that sea level rise will have on their communities over time. It uses global elevation data and the most up-to-date climate change projections to show where and when sea level rise is most likely to impact coastal areas. This can help planning teams prioritize mitigation actions that relate to sea level rise where they are needed most.

The Digital Coast program is NOAA’s home for resources that relate to a changing climate and growing populations. It includes data, tools, training, and stories of resilience. While the focus is on the coast, the data, resources and training topics are not limited to coastal communities. For example, the Digital Coast houses land cover, wetlands, and soil survey data from across the nation.

This document outlines the different resources and programs available to address climate resilience nationwide. It covers resources that can help you identify and assess climate risk, plan for it, and fund climate adaptation and mitigation activities. Keep in mind this list of resources is just a starting point. Like most hazard data, climate change and resilience data are best at the local level. Many local and regional jurisdictions have their own approved standards.

Every four years, the U.S. Global Change Research Program delivers the National Climate Assessment to Congress and the president. The next report is due for release in late 2023. The assessment gives an in-depth look at climate change impacts on the United States. It is not a raw data resource. It is a discussion and report on how the climate is changing and its impacts on regions and sectors. The report also presents an overview of response strategies, including mitigation.

This website provides timely and authoritative data about climate science, adaptation, and mitigation. It includes a Climate Data Primer. The primer has basic information to help people understand and explore climate data. Climate.gov also includes teaching resources, maps, and data.

2022 Sea Level Rise Technical Report provides the most up-to-date sea level rise projections. The report released by the National Ocean Service makes updated projections available through 2150 for all U.S. coastal waters. A companion Application Guide is available to help users apply and integrate the report into local planning and adaptation decisions. The guide, penned by professionals with expertise on applying sea level rise to local level planning, helps readers wade through considerations and arrive at what’s best for their community. There are several additional resources available for understanding and applying the updated sea level rise projections.

The American Planning Association (APA) developed the Planning for Urban Heat Resilience guide. Its goal is to help planners understand and prepare for the risks of extreme heat. It covers how to include equity when planning for extreme heat mitigation and adaptation. It also shows how planners can mitigate and manage heat through policies, plans, and mitigation activities.

FEMA, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission/Association of Bay Area Governments (MTC/ABAG) worked together to make the Regional Resilience Toolkit (RRT). The RRT helps regions as they plan for disasters. It does this by showing jurisdictions, counties, and other regional entities how to work across multiple jurisdictions and with non-governmental partners to improve climate resilience. 

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change. Their Fifth Assessment Report evaluates the scientific basis of climate change. It includes its impacts and future risks. It also has options for adaptation and mitigation. The Data Distribution Center provides historic climate, socio-economic, and environmental data and projections for future scenarios. Note: The IPCC is currently in its Sixth Assessment cycle. Check the IPCC’s website often for the most recent data and tools.

This site provides a high level summary of each state’s risk to climate change. There are short key talking points, a short narrative, and data organized into charts. This provides a basis for understanding key climate challenges for each state and serves as a starting point for deeper analysis. 

The toolkit provides tools and information to help communities grow resilience and manage climate-related risks. It pulls information from across the federal government to a single location. The toolkit connects users to climate tools, data and visualization. It also offers training on how to use those tools.

This interagency program shares resources, reports, data, multimedia, and other factors that could inform a risk assessment. It has many visualizations of global climate change from member agencies. These can help you evaluate and communicate future risk. The program also maintains a library of scientific assessments, annual reports, research plans, fact sheets, brochures, and other resources.

The National Risk Index (NRI) is a dataset and online tool that identifies communities most at risk for 18 natural hazards, some of which may be exacerbated by climate change. The NRI visualizes risk metrics, includes data on expected annual losses, and incorporates social vulnerability and community resilience data. It covers geographies ranging from counties to census tracts.

This tool, developed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Forest Service, is a free, easy-to-use website with interactive maps, charts, and resources to help communities understand, explore, and reduce wildfire risk.

The FEMA Community Resilience Index (CRI) is a composite index of 22 indicators commonly used across 14 peer-reviewed community resilience methodologies (used in 5 or more methodologies). This index provides a relative composite value by county and by census tract, measured as an average of counts of standard deviations from the national mean for each indicator. The FEMA CRI and each individual indicator are included as a GIS data layer in the Resilience Analysis and Planning Tool (RAPT).

Community resilience is the capacity of individuals and households within a community to absorb the external stresses of a disaster. The 2019 Community Resilience Estimates (CRE) are produced using information on individuals and households from the 2019 American Community Survey (ACS) and the Census Bureau’s Population Estimates Program (PEP). Explainer Webinar and Slide Deck: https://www.census.gov/data/academy/webinars/2021/community-resilience-estimates.html

This is a training from FEMA Region 10. It gives ways to address equity issues when developing and carrying out a community’s hazard mitigation plan.

This document from the Resilient Nation Partnership Network gives guidelines for how to break down barriers and embrace diverse points of view to achieve whole-community resilience.

The Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) developed this tool. It identifies disadvantaged communities at a census tract level through standardized, nationally consistent data. It considers communities disadvantaged if they are in a census tract that meets the threshold for at least one of the tool’s categories of burden and a corresponding economic indicator. It does the same if they are on the lands of a federally recognized tribe.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) EJScreen tool provides users with a nationwide dataset. This resource combines environmental and demographic data. By combining these two types of data, the tool creates maps that show where socially vulnerable populations and underserved communities may face adverse environmental impacts. Such impacts include those from wildfires, drought, coastal flood hazards, extreme precipitation events and sea level rise. The platform helps users learn where these impacts will occur and which demographics they will affect. The tool can help plan for targeted interventions.

This Government Accountability Office document has information about federal efforts that relate to better planning and coordination with regard to environmental justice.

This document is one of FEMA’s Guides to Expanding Mitigation. It helps mitigation planning partners learn more about equitable mitigation. It also helps them learn how they can use it within communities and plans. The guide defines social vulnerability and the differences between equity and equality.

FEMA and the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) developed this document. It highlights how including older adults in mitigation planning efforts can create a thorough mitigation strategy that serves the whole community. As a group, older adults often suffer the highest number of fatalities during disaster events. Prioritizing their needs before and after disasters can help to mitigate that risk.

This resource is part of the FEMA Guide to Expanding Mitigation Series. It outlines how to include people with disabilities not only in disaster preparedness and response, but also in long-term risk reduction efforts.

The NAACP created this document. It provides six suggestions to help communities build equity into the four phases of emergency management.

The American Planning Association made this guide. It outlines best practices for working the principles of equity, inclusion, diversity and justice into planning processes and policies.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) partnered to create a nationwide Social Vulnerability Index (SVI). This interactive mapping tool shows how 15 United States census variables can combine to make some populations more vulnerable to adverse impacts. Such impacts include those from climate change. This mapping tool shows social vulnerability down to the census tract level. This allows for precise analysis. The SVI site also lets users download data that relate to social vulnerability for their own analyses. Assessing social vulnerability is a key step in learning how shifts in risk exposure caused by climate change can have worse effects on socially vulnerable populations.

The Resilience Analysis and Planning Tool (RAPT) developed by FEMA and Argonne National Lab is a free GIS web mapping tool that allows federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial emergency managers, and other community leaders to examine the interplay of people, infrastructure, and hazards – including real-time weather forecasts, historic disasters and estimated annualized frequency of hazard risk.

This online Geographic Information Systems (GIS) platform provides free, open-source tools and datasets. These tools and data resources can be used to create spatial visualizations of data and can also be used to perform data analysis. The resulting analyses and visualizations can help to communicate climate change impacts to a general audience and can be used for integrating climate change considerations into HMPs.