After identifying the hazards, the next step is to evaluate the relative risk of each hazard’s impact on the community. This is called risk assessment. Risk assessment looks at how frequent a specific hazard occurs and how large (in intensity or magnitude) it is and then examines the exposure and vulnerability of assets at risk.

One resource for risk assessment is the Hazards-US Risk and Vulnerability Determination Tool (HAZUS-MH), available on the FEMA HAZUS website: https://www.fema.gov/flood-maps/tools-resources/flood-map-products/hazus.

HAZUS-MH is a powerful risk assessment program used for analyzing potential losses from floods, hurricane winds, and earthquakes. HAZUS-MH combines current scientific and engineering knowledge with the latest geographic information systems (GIS) technology to produce estimates of hazard-related damage.