County Hazard Analysis & Planning
Budget: $30 – $250 USD
Final Project: Hazard Analysis & Disaster Planning
County-level analysis
The final project is your opportunity to revisit all of the exercises you have completed this
semester and apply the concepts and real-world analytics to a different place (South
Carolina). The goal of this project is two-fold: Prove that you can undertake these types of
analyses in new areas and build useful information for planners, emergency managers, and
the general public. The idea here is that you will be building a set of information for people
who live and work in your County that do not have the skills and expertise to:
A) Know where to look for data,
B) Understand how to turn data into information to make better decisions.
Your final project will consist of two parts: an executive summary & a series of analytical
assessments. Analytical assessments will demonstrate your ability to apply what you have
learned in terms of techniques to crunch data from real-world observations. The executive
summary will demonstrate that you understand the numbers, have background knowledge
and information to provide context for them, and can explain what they mean.
BEFORE YOU BEGIN
Gather the required data from the following sources. Both executive summary and
analytical assessment will be based on summarizing data (Pivot table function) of various
fields.
1. Go to www.SHELDSUS.org and collect data for South Carolina
2. Go to www.vulnerabilitymap.org and collect a vulnerability map for the state and
your County.
3. Go to www.fema.gov/about/openfema/data-sets, and acquaint yourself with
several FEMA datasets on major disaster declarations, individual assistance, public
assistance, and hazard mitigation. However, we will download the required data for
the project because FEMA frequently updates its webpage, and we do not want the
class to use a different dataset to answer the same set of questions.
4. Get the data from the final project folder (which will be available in the coming
weeks) and run the Pivot table function for each dataset so that you can supply
required numbers, names of counties, and other information as needed in the
quizzes of analytical assessment. Datasets include:
a. FEMA IA data for South Carolina (Hurricane Matthew) in the FEMA Individual
Assistance folder
b. FEMA Public Assistance data for South Carolina (Hurricane Matthew) in the
FEMA Public Assistance folder
c. FEMA Hazard Mitigation Assistance data for the nation in the FEMA Hazard
2
PAD 6398 Hazards Analysis and Disaster Planning
Dr. Christopher T. Emrich and Dr. Sanam K. Aksha
Mitigation folder
5. Sketch out what you want to present for the video narration. Familiarize yourself
with the screen capture/recording functions of Flipgrid. Also, ensure that all the
points outlined below are included in the video narration/presentation.
Data (Will be populated in the coming weeks)
You will use various data sets to complete this assignment as we do in the real world to
understand hazard impact, vulnerability mapping, risk mitigation, and post-disaster
recovery processes. Hazard loss data are gathered from the SHELDUS webpage, and social
vulnerability data are collected from the Vulnerability Mapping webpage. Likewise, disaster
declarations (PDD), housing impact (IA), infrastructure impact (PA), and hazard mitigation
data will be collected from the OpenFEMA webpage.
You need to gather SHELDUS and SoVI data from the sources mentioned above or the links
below. OpenFEMA data and Hurricane Matthew impact data will be made available in the
Final Project folder.
1. Past hazard frequency & impact data: www.SHELDUS.org
2. Social vulnerability: www.vulnerabilitymap.org
3. Housing impact: Refer to the Final Project folder for the South Carolina Matthew IA
data:
PA Project Details: https://www.fema.gov/openfema-data-page/public-assistance-
funded-projects-details-v1
PA Project Summaries: https://www.fema.gov/openfema-data-page/public-
assistance-funded-project-summaries-v1
4. Hazard mitigation: Refer to the Final Project folder for the data.
HMA Mitigated Properties: https://www.fema.gov/openfema-data-page/hazard-
mitigation-assistance-mitigated-properties-v2
HMA Projects: https://www.fema.gov/openfema-data-page/hazard-mitigation-
assistance-projects-v2
5. Major Disaster Declarations/Presidential Declared Disasters (PDD)
https://www.fema.gov/openfema-data-page/disaster-declarations-summaries-v2
Submission: Details will be provided by Week 12 of the semester
Expect a similar set of deliverables as you have seen this semester.
Part A: Executive summary: Prepare a video presentation. (~120 pts)
Part B: Analytic Assessment (~120 pts)
County-level analysis
The final project is your opportunity to revisit all of the exercises you have completed this
semester and apply the concepts and real-world analytics to a different place (South
Carolina). The goal of this project is two-fold: Prove that you can undertake these types of
analyses in new areas and build useful information for planners, emergency managers, and
the general public. The idea here is that you will be building a set of information for people
who live and work in your County that do not have the skills and expertise to:
A) Know where to look for data,
B) Understand how to turn data into information to make better decisions.
Your final project will consist of two parts: an executive summary & a series of analytical
assessments. Analytical assessments will demonstrate your ability to apply what you have
learned in terms of techniques to crunch data from real-world observations. The executive
summary will demonstrate that you understand the numbers, have background knowledge
and information to provide context for them, and can explain what they mean.
BEFORE YOU BEGIN
Gather the required data from the following sources. Both executive summary and
analytical assessment will be based on summarizing data (Pivot table function) of various
fields.
1. Go to www.SHELDSUS.org and collect data for South Carolina
2. Go to www.vulnerabilitymap.org and collect a vulnerability map for the state and
your County.
3. Go to www.fema.gov/about/openfema/data-sets, and acquaint yourself with
several FEMA datasets on major disaster declarations, individual assistance, public
assistance, and hazard mitigation. However, we will download the required data for
the project because FEMA frequently updates its webpage, and we do not want the
class to use a different dataset to answer the same set of questions.
4. Get the data from the final project folder (which will be available in the coming
weeks) and run the Pivot table function for each dataset so that you can supply
required numbers, names of counties, and other information as needed in the
quizzes of analytical assessment. Datasets include:
a. FEMA IA data for South Carolina (Hurricane Matthew) in the FEMA Individual
Assistance folder
b. FEMA Public Assistance data for South Carolina (Hurricane Matthew) in the
FEMA Public Assistance folder
c. FEMA Hazard Mitigation Assistance data for the nation in the FEMA Hazard
2
PAD 6398 Hazards Analysis and Disaster Planning
Dr. Christopher T. Emrich and Dr. Sanam K. Aksha
Mitigation folder
5. Sketch out what you want to present for the video narration. Familiarize yourself
with the screen capture/recording functions of Flipgrid. Also, ensure that all the
points outlined below are included in the video narration/presentation.
Data (Will be populated in the coming weeks)
You will use various data sets to complete this assignment as we do in the real world to
understand hazard impact, vulnerability mapping, risk mitigation, and post-disaster
recovery processes. Hazard loss data are gathered from the SHELDUS webpage, and social
vulnerability data are collected from the Vulnerability Mapping webpage. Likewise, disaster
declarations (PDD), housing impact (IA), infrastructure impact (PA), and hazard mitigation
data will be collected from the OpenFEMA webpage.
You need to gather SHELDUS and SoVI data from the sources mentioned above or the links
below. OpenFEMA data and Hurricane Matthew impact data will be made available in the
Final Project folder.
1. Past hazard frequency & impact data: www.SHELDUS.org
2. Social vulnerability: www.vulnerabilitymap.org
3. Housing impact: Refer to the Final Project folder for the South Carolina Matthew IA
data:
PA Project Details: https://www.fema.gov/openfema-data-page/public-assistance-
funded-projects-details-v1
PA Project Summaries: https://www.fema.gov/openfema-data-page/public-
assistance-funded-project-summaries-v1
4. Hazard mitigation: Refer to the Final Project folder for the data.
HMA Mitigated Properties: https://www.fema.gov/openfema-data-page/hazard-
mitigation-assistance-mitigated-properties-v2
HMA Projects: https://www.fema.gov/openfema-data-page/hazard-mitigation-
assistance-projects-v2
5. Major Disaster Declarations/Presidential Declared Disasters (PDD)
https://www.fema.gov/openfema-data-page/disaster-declarations-summaries-v2
Submission: Details will be provided by Week 12 of the semester
Expect a similar set of deliverables as you have seen this semester.
Part A: Executive summary: Prepare a video presentation. (~120 pts)
Part B: Analytic Assessment (~120 pts)