FEMA’s 2024 Updates to the Resilience Analysis and Planning Tool

This week, FEMA announced new updates for its Resilience Analysis and Planning Tool (RAPT). This resource is a free, online, and easy-to-use geographic information systems (GIS) tool that helps emergency managers and infrastructure stakeholders visualize, prioritize, and implement strategies to build resilience against natural hazards.

RAPT assesses potential challenges to community resilience to help make strategic decisions for mitigation, response, and recovery. The 2024 updates to the RAPT tool includes new census data from the American Community Survey five-year estimate (2018-2022) and updated Community Resilience Challenges Indices (CRCI) for counties and census tracts. The web map allows users of all GIS skill levels to combine layers of community resilience indicators, infrastructure locations, and hazard data. The 2024 update also includes a preview of Future RAPT, built with ArcGIS Experience Builder, Esri’s new web app tool. 

RAPT includes more than 100 pre-loaded data layers and the tool’s functionality allows users to visualize combinations of these data layers for a specific location. This update of RAPT includes:

• Updated U.S. Census data: Latest American Community Survey five-year estimates (2018-2022) with refreshed pop-ups.
• Take a Tour: New walkthrough of the site built right into the tool.
• County Overview: This dashboard provides at-a-glance information at the county level.

In addition to RAPT, utilites are encouraged to utilize FEMA’s Climate Risk and Resilience Portal (ClimRR). ClimRR provides easy access to climate data to integrate future conditions into hazard mitigation plans and infrastructure design, among other uses. The climate projections offered by ClimRR can be combined and overlayed with data from RAPT. Combining data from ClimRR and RAPT allows users to understand local-scale climate risks in the context of existing community demographics and infrastructure, including the location of vulnerable populations and critical infrastructure. Access the RAPT GIS tool here or read more about RAPT at FEMA.

FEMA will host three interactive webinars on RAPT. Each webinar will cover the same content. Please register for one of these 60-minute sessions:

• Webinar 1 – Tuesday, July 30, from noon-1 p.m. ET. Register here.
• Webinar 2 – Thursday, Aug. 1, from 2-3 p.m. ET. Register here.
• Webinar 3 – Wednesday, Aug. 7, from 4-5 p.m. ET. Register here.