FEMA’s Hazus Team Releases Updates Including Additional Critical Infrastructure Data

FEMA’s Hazus team has released a new version of Hazus software with major improvements to inventory data, security vulnerability remediation, software, and methodology. Hazus is a nationally standardized risk modeling methodology. It identifies areas with high risk for natural hazards and estimates physical, economic, and social impacts of earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, and tsunamis.

Hazus baseline datasets were updated significantly with the Hazus 6.0 release. Some of the inventory improvements include updates to demographics data, the General Building Stock (GBS), essential facilities, transportation systems, utility systems, 2020 census geometries, and hazard data. The hazard data updates improve Hazus modeling capabilities by leveraging best available public data and enhanced methodologies. For the critical infrastructure community, Hazus’s partnership with the Homeland Infrastructure Foundation Level Data (HIFLD) Program provides consistently updated infrastructure layers across the country. According to Hazus, “Building and infrastructure inventories are fundamental inputs for any risk analysis project, and these updates will substantially improve the accuracy of risk and exposure metrics across the U.S.” Lastly, the Hazus team is hosting a webinar in January (click here to register), where users can learn more about the 6.0 updates, watch a live Hazus demo, and ask the Hazus team of experts’ questions about the data updates in real time. Access the updated version of Hazus at FEMA.