Identifying and Assessing Risk

As part of preparedness, communities seek to understand the risks they face. Knowledge of these risks allows a community to make informed decisions about how to manage risk and develop needed capabilities. Therefore, the first component of the Preparedness System is identifying and assessing risk. A risk assessment collects information regarding the threats and hazards, including the projected consequences or impacts.

Estimating Capability Requirements

To fully understand capability requirements, each community, organization, and level of government must consider single threats or hazards as well as the full range of risks they may face. Estimating capability begins with developing a set of planning factors including:

• Context: The factors that would make the threats or hazards of concern more challenging.
• Outcomes: The desired outcomes for each core capability.
• Impacts: The likely impacts of each threat/hazard on the jurisdiction's or organization's capabilities. These planning factors help inform decisions about the capability level required and the resources needed.

Building and Sustaining Capabilities

After completing the estimation process, jurisdictions and organizations verify existing capabilities and identify gaps. Prioritizing gaps involves looking at a combination of the desired outcomes, risk assessments, and the potential effects of not addressing the gaps.

Working together, planners, government officials, and elected leaders can develop strategies to allocate resources effectively, as well as leverage available assistance to reduce risk. These strategies consider how to both sustain current levels of capability and address gaps in order to achieve the National Preparedness Goal and local capability targets.

Planning to Deliver Capabilities

Planning makes it possible to deliver the core capabilities to accomplish each mission area. Strategic and operational planning:

• Establishes priorities.
• Identifies expected levels of performance and capability requirements.
• Provides the standard for assessing capabilities.
• Helps stakeholders learn their role.

An integrated approach to planning helps:

• Ensure plans are synchronized (i.e., in purpose, place, and time).
• Promote understanding within the whole community of its roles and the desired outcomes across all mission areas.
• Establish mutual expectations while resolving potential points of friction.
• Determine potential resource shortfalls and foster creative strategies for addressing resource gaps.
• Identify and coordinate the statutory authorities necessary for delivering capabilities during an emergency or imminent threat

Validating Capabilities

Measuring progress toward achieving the National Preparedness Goal will provide the means to decide how and where to allocate scarce resources and prioritize preparedness. This validation process can be done through exercises, remedial action management programs, and assessments.

Reviewing and Updating

The Nation's security and resilience will be strengthened as it employs the components of the National Preparedness System. Changes in a community's exposure and sensitivity can and do occur, however, whether from evolving threats and hazards, aging infrastructure, shifts in population, or changes in the natural environment. On a recurring basis, capabilities, resources, and plans should be reviewed to determine if they remain relevant or need to be updated.