The Diversity of Hazus
Uses for Hazus Beyond Planning
ASFPM 2011 National Conference
Louisville, KY
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Today’s Speakers
 Rob Flaner, CFM
• Hazard Mitigation Program Manager
• Over 20 years experience in FEMA hazard mitigation
programs.
• Project Manager for 30 hazard mitigation planning efforts
in the west over the past 7 years.
 Ed Whitford
• GIS/Hazus Program Manager
• Performed Hazus risk assessments on over 20 projects.
What are we going to talk about?
 Wouldn’t be nice if………..!
 Diverse applications of Hazus
 What is a “user defined facilities” analysis
 Updating Hazus with “user defined” data
 Project examples
 What we have learned
Disclaimer
 The topics we will discuss are based on our applications
of Hazus.
 Some of these applications are currently not
sanctioned by FEMA.
 But, in this RiskMAP age, “Wouldn’t be nice if……….!
What is the user defined facilities approach?
User defined facilities are those structures,
other than essential facilities or high potential
loss facilities, which the user may wish to
analyze on a site-specific basis.
You can construct a base model that will allow
you to extract Hazus outputs on a site-by-site
basis.
User defined approach and analysis
Building specific data

Assessor

FEMA Elevation Certificates

Site Surveys
Flood depth grids

HEC-RAS

FLO-2D

FEMA Flood Studies

Hazus Generated
PARCEL
R8266020270
ADDRESS
CITY_STATE
Latitude
Longitude
Occupancy
Year Built
No Stories
Building Cost
Content Cost
BldgType
Design Level
Foundation Type
FirstFloorElevation
3117 N TAMARACK DR
BOISE, ID 83703-0000
43.649004
-116.240354
Residential
1939
1
$160,800
$88,000
WOOD
1
5
2.2
User defined inputs
 Parcel and building footprint data
 Assessor tax data
• Year Built
• Square Footage
• Construction Class and Foundation Type
• Occupancy/Use Code
• Number of Stories
• Building Value
 First floor height above LAG
• Field Visit and Photos
• Elevation Certificates
• Effective FIRM Date
User defined challenges…and solutions
 Loaded at the study region level
 Not currently supported in CDMS
 Loss of data precision, XY accuracy (flood model only)
 Applying non-default depth damage functions
 Database attribute requirements
 Study region size
 First floor height above grade
Hazus Versatility
 Hazus has evolved into a multifaceted planning tool
 Regionally relevant Hazus models can be used for:
Public
information
To
support benefit cost analyses for mitigation grant
applications
Risk
based analysis of capital projects
Risk
Assessment
“What
if” scenarios
Planning
(mitigation, emergency management,
COOP, debris management)
Public Outreach
 Hazus is a powerful public outreach
tool
 To gauge peoples perception of risk,
you need to be able to show them
how a hazard may impact them
personally (“I never new !”)
 A regionally relevant risk assessment
is the key.
 Can really promote the concept of
mitigation
 “Have you thought about……?”
 People like having access to this type
of information
 Very media friendly!
Hazus and BCAR
 You want to apply for a mitigation grant for a flood
hazard mitigation project.
 You need to perform a BCA.
 But, you don’t have historical loss data in the form of
insurance claims or disaster records.
 You don’t have a flood insurance study.
 What can you do?
 Hazus
Hazus and BCAR
 Hazus can be used to generate “expected” or
“Historical” loss results that can be plugged in to the
Damage Frequency module of BCAR
 Keys
Must be a level 2,user defined module
Must be able to construct depth grids form creditable
source ( H&H study, surveyed high water marks from
historical events.
Recurrence intervals
Good data on inventory-(i.e. assessors data,
elevation certificates, construction cost guides)
Risk Based Analysis of Capital Projects
 Can use Hazus to perform “alternatives” analysis of
capital projects.
 Can compare losses avoided from one alternative to
another.
 “what if” scenarios
 Can be a great tool to illustrate project benefits to garner
political support.
 Keys:
• Same as mentioned for BCAR support
Project ExampleOutreach
Ada County, Idaho
 30,000 user defined facilities were
loaded into Hazus
 Detailed structure information was
extracted from County Assessor data.
 Utilized LiDAR for depth grid production
 Critical/essential facilities defined by the
County were used in place of the Hazus
defaults.
 Set up Hazus work stations at public
open houses.
 Each citizen received a printout of
property specific information relating to
dam failure ,flood and earthquake.
Example Outputs
Legend
FEMA 1% Annual
Chance Flood
High: 24 ft
¹
1 inch =
500 feet
Low: 0 ft
For informational purposes only,
not a regulatory flood map.
Project Example-BCAR
Project Exodus-Tillamook Bay, OR
 FEMA 406 mitigation project
 Over 500 used defined facilities.
 Used pre and post project depth grids
from H&H study (historic events).
 Inventory was based on assessor’s
data.
 Replacement cost was updated using
national cost estimation guides.
 Loss results were validated
 Hazus results were plugged into DFA
module of BCAR.
Project Example
Risk Based Analysis of
Capital Projects
King County, WA
180th-200th Levee alternative analysis
 Used Hazus and BCAR to look at
impacts for 3 setback levee alignments,
plus an existing condition analysis.
 Hazus used to model pre and post
project impacts.
 BCAR used to calculate annualized
avoided damages.
 Analysis included levee breach
probabilities.
 Analyzed 4 flows, 3 dam operational
scenarios, for 4 levee alignments (that is
48 sets of depth grids!)
 Over 1900 user defined facilities
Water Depth In Building
High :8
Low : 0
What we have found…..
 The potential applications for Hazus at the local level
are many.
 The key’s are:
• Good data !
• Thorough understanding of the application’s within the
model- (knowledge of its strengths and limitations).
• Ability to validate results
 FEMA should acknowledge the versatility of Hazus in all
of its programs.
 Historic loss data is not always available. Then what?
Questions