HAZUS-MH

Criterion

Explanation

General Description

Developed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the model is a risk assessment software package built on GIS technology. HAZUS- MH can model multiple types of hazards including: flooding, hurricanes, coastal surges, tsunamis, and earthquakes. Estimates physical damage, economic losses, and social impacts.

The model estimates the risk in three steps: 1) calculates the exposure for a selected area, 2) characterizes the level or intensity of the hazard affecting the exposed area, 3) uses the exposed area and the hazard to calculate the potential losses in terms of economic losses, structural damage, etc.

Model Domain

https://msc.fema.gov/portal/resources/hazus

Developer

FEMA

Hardware computing requirements

Release 4.2 requires users to have ArcGIS 10.5.1 licenses. ArcGIS Spatial Analyst extension is required for the Flood Model.

• 2.2 GHZ dual core or higher, 4 GB or higher of memory/RAM
• 10 GB disk space for State level data, 70 GB for US level data
• Microsoft 10, 8.1 and 7 (64-bit)

Code language

Python, ArcGIS tool extension.

Original application

First edition released by FEMA in 1997.

Public/proprietary and cost

Free and publicly Available

Physically or empirically based

Empirical

Mathematical methods used

Benefit Cost Analysis

Input data requirements

Data built-into the downloaded model scripts.

• National Land Cover Data
• HURDAT (probabilistic storm set)
• USGS National Elevation Data Set
• US Census 2010 Data
• Compilation of GIS Data Layers for Flash Flood Forecasting
• National Operational Hydrologic Remote Sensing Center data (probabilistic ground motion data)
• US Geological Survey

Outputs

• 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;
• Results are reported as the average annualized loss and probabilistic results. Geographic datasets used in conjunction with the HAZUS application need to be downloaded separately as state specific datasets.

Pre-processing and post-processing tools

ArcMap 10.5.1

Representation of uncertainty

None specified

Prevalence

Used for mitigation and recovery, as well as preparedness and response. Government planners, GIS specialists, and emergency managers use HAZUS-MH across the nation to determine losses and the most beneficial mitigation approaches to take to minimize them. Often used in the assessment step in the mitigation planning process.

Ease of use for public entities

Easy to use if user is knowledgeable with ArcGIS

Ease of obtaining information and availability of technical support

Technical Guide available through FEMA. Training opportunities and conferences available for users. HAZUS User Group provides additional support and information. Technical support contacts available on website.

Source code availability

N/A

Status of model development

Mature, HAZUS 4.2 released May 2018. Development continuing.

Challenges for integration

HAZUS-MH should be considered a work in progress; as such, the absolute value estimates should be interpreted with care. Spatial outputs are at the state level, but can be post estimated to lower geographies (county, city) by the user.