Hazus

Organizational

General Information:

Author: Federal Emergency Management Agency (USA)

Year of publication: 2017 (current edition)

Available languages: English

Details of Assessment:

Type of assessment: Comprehensive impact and risk assessment

Details: Hazus is used for mitigation and recovery, preparedness and response. Government planners, GIS specialists, and emergency managers use Hazus to determine losses and the most beneficial approaches to minimize them

Format of assessment: Web tool

Estimated costs for conducting: None

Estimated duration of assessment: No information

To be carried out by whom: Multiple actors

Details: Government representatives, GIS specialists and emergency managers

Institutional scale of use: Continental

Details: National, Regional, Local/community, Project level

Assesment to be used by which target audience: Multiple actors

Details: State level and local decision makers

Output: Risk map

Methodological

Coverage & Methodology:

Region of origin: North America

Developed by which sector: Development cooperation

Applied in practice: Yes

Geographic coverage in analysis: Worldwide

Potential geographic coverage: Worldwide

Details: Not sector specific, losses are estimated on three levels: physical, economic and social

Method used: Scenario mapping

Description of methodology: Modelling approach to estimate losses from earthquakes, floods, and hurricanes. Hazus uses Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology to estimate physical, economic, and social impacts of disasters

Risk framework used: No explicit use of risk framework

Risk components incorporated: Exposure

Hazards and impacts considered in the assessment: Cyclone (including tropical storm, hurricane and typhoon), Earthquake, Flood, Tsunami

Details: Hazus uses Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology to estimate physical, economic, and social impacts of disasters

Participatory elements: No

Consideration of interconnectedness and -dependencies of risks: No information

Adressing uncertainty: No information

Scope of assessment: Identification of risks, assessment of impacts

Relevance for losses and damages:

Economic/Non-Economic losses incorporated: Both

Details: Potential loss estimates analyzed in Hazus include: Physical damage to residential and commercial buildings, schools, critical facilities, and infrastructure; Economic loss, including lost jobs, business interruptions, repair, and reconstruction costs; Social impacts, including estimates of shelter requirements, displaced households, and population exposed to scenario floods, earthquakes, and hurricanes, and tsunamis

Applicability for entire risk spectrum (from extreme weather events to slow onset processes): No

Applicability

Recommendations for Adaptation measures included in Climate Risk Assessment: No

Details: It does not make adaptation recommendations itself but it is used as a basis to make informed choices for adaptation methods

Usefulness for political purposes: Very useful tool for risk assessments that perform economic loss scenarios for certain natural hazards and rapid needs assessments during hurricane response and for hazard awareness

Applied by whom: US government generally (but as it is open source it can be applied by anyone)

Open access: Yes