HAZUS Training

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Who Would Benefit? What Will be Learned?

Those involved in risk assessment activities, including Emergency Managers, GIS Specialists, Geologists, State and Local Planners, and Consultants, are prime candidates for receiving training in HAZUS.

FEMA offers a number of traditional classroom courses at its Emergency Management Institute (EMI) in Emmitsburg, Maryland.  These courses are either available at no cost or at a minimal cost depending on your organizational affiliation. Currently offered courses include the following:

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Introduction to ArcGIS for HAZUS-MH Users

This hands-on course is designed to empower emergency managers, planners, engineers, public safety professionals, and others with the skills needed to visualize, query, and analyze information related to disaster mitigation, response, recovery, and risk management using ArcGIS, the application on which HAZUS-MH is based.

The course provides a solid foundation of basic skills for new ArcGIS users.  These skills include map design, creation of charts and reports, techniques for constructing both spatial and attribute related queries, creation and manipulation of tabular as well as geographic data, understanding and managing coordinate systems, and managing spatial data with ArcCatalog.  The course also introduces a number of the more powerful capabilities of ArcGIS such as georeferencing scanned imagery, geocoding, and the Spatial Analyst extension which is required by HAZUS-MH for flood modeling, but can also be used for a significant range of other tasks including visualization of terrain data, modeling of population movements, and much more.  The class concludes with a group exercise in which students apply the skills that they have learned to solve a realistic problem.

While this course does not provide hands-on instruction specifically on HAZUS-MH, all exercises use HAZUS-MH inventory and model output and therefore students become familiar with elements of HAZUS-MH while learning how to use the underlying GIS technology upon which HAZUS-MH operates.

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Basic HAZUS-MH

This course provides students with an introduction to the capabilities that HAZUS-MH offers for helping communities understand the social and economic risks that they face from earthquake, flood, and hurricane hazards.  During the first part of the course, students are led thru the process of installing HAZUS-MH and creating a study region that defines the area at risk from a hazard.  They are then led thru a combination of lectures and hands-on exercises that help them understand how HAZUS-MH can be used to define and analyze flood, earthquake, and hurricane wind hazards and the types of information that HAZUS-MH can produce about the social and economic losses that can result from each of those hazards.  The course focuses on a level 1 analysis which makes it possible to perform a complete hazard analysis with minimal to no additional input of data beyond what is included with the software. 

This course is recommended for anyone involved with or interested in planning for issues related to flood, earthquake, or hurricane wind events. This includes government officials, students and researchers, insurance companies, utilities and others.

Prerequisites: Participants in this course should have skills equivalent to those taught in the "Introduction to ArcGIS for HAZUS-MH Users" course.

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Advanced HAZUS-MH for Earthquake

This course provides in-depth instruction and hands-on exercises that develop the skills needed to effectively use HAZUS-MH for modeling the impacts on communities from earthquakes.  The focus of the course is on the processes that are used to define an earthquake hazard and to generate social and economic loss estimations.  However, the course also provides a review of the methodologies used to compile the extensive out-of-the-box inventory that is provided with HAZUS-MH, which is largely comprised of best available national data sources, and it provides an introduction to the techniques for updating the inventory with more accurate aggregate and site specific local data.

This course provides students with the opportunity to expand on the skills developed in the Basic HAZUS-MH course by exploring many of the advanced capabilities of the HAZUS-MH earthquake model.   It includes discussion of how HAZUS-MH can be used to conduct detailed building analysis using the Advanced Engineering Building Module (AEBM).  It also reviews the differences that might be seen in the output from earthquake models caused by variations in vulnerabilities existing in different building configurations.  The class helps students understand the impacts of modifying model parameters by providing focused discussion on the process of estimating losses for bridges, pipelines, and socio-economic parameters. It concludes with a discussion on model uncertainties and applications of the model for assessing mitigation strategies and supporting response and recovery activities.

Prerequisites: Participants in this course must complete the "Basic HAZUS-MH" course and have skills equivalent to those taught in the "Introduction to ArcGIS for HAZUS-MH Users" course.

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Advanced HAZUS-MH for Flood

This course provides in-depth instruction and hands-on exercises that develop the skills needed to effectively use HAZUS-MH for modeling the impacts on communities from riverine and coastal flooding.  The focus of the course is on the processes that are used to define a flood hazard and to generate social and economic loss estimations.  However, the course also provides a review of the methodologies used to compile the extensive out-of-the-box inventory that is provided with HAZUS and it provides an introduction to the techniques for updating the inventory, which is largely composed of best available national data sources, with more accurate aggregate and site specific local data. 

Participants will become familiar with the many options that HAZUS-MH provides for generating a flood depth grid.  These range from having HAZUS-MH define a flood hazard with limited data to providing HAZUS-MH with detailed information about a flood hazard produced by other modeling tools or obtained from sources such as the products generated by the FEMA Map Modernization Program.  Following discussion of the hazard development process, the course will explore mechanisms used to analyze losses as well as the multitude of maps, tables, and reports that HAZUS-MH generates with a focus on how to interpret the wealth of information provided in these outputs.  Finally, students will be provided with an opportunity to complete a group exercise that enables them to apply the valuable skills learned in class.

Prerequisites: Participants in this course must complete the "Basic HAZUS-MH" course and have skills equivalent to those taught in the "Introduction to ArcGIS for HAZUS-MH Users" course.

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Advanced HAZUS-MH for Hurricane

This course provides in-depth instruction and hands-on exercises that develop the skills needed to effectively use HAZUS-MH for modeling the impacts on communities from hurricanes.  The focus of the course is on the processes that are used to define a hurricane hazard and to generate social and economic loss estimations.  However, the course also provides a review of the methodologies used to compile the extensive out-of-the-box inventory that is provided with HAZUS and it provides an introduction to the techniques for updating the inventory, which is largely composed of best available national data sources, with more accurate aggregate and site specific local data. 

The course begins with a review of the basics of the hurricane model components.  This is followed by a detailed discussion on the definition of the hurricane hazard including a review of the key components that drive the hazard analysis and the damage models that generate the analysis output.  The class continues by providing students with an understanding of the means by which HAZUS-MH can be applied to meet the needs of a variety of emergency management functions including techniques for estimating shelter, debris, and economic impacts as well as how this type of information can be applied to support the identification of mitigation strategies.  It concludes with a review of model uncertainties and the means by which to address those uncertainties within the analysis process.
Prerequisites: Participants in this course must complete the "Basic HAZUS-MH" course and have skills equivalent to those taught in the "Introduction to ArcGIS for HAZUS-MH Users" course.

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HAZUS-MH for Disaster Operations

This course provides FEMA and state emergency management officials with comprehensive guidance on the use of HAZUS-MH at the Joint Field Office (JFO) to support emergency management decisions. The course is not intended to provide instruction on how to operate HAZUS-MH at the JFO (current courses provide this instruction), but how to use HAZUS-MH analyses and outputs to support decisions on emergency management policies, plans, programs, and implementation strategies.

Prerequisites: None

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HAZUS-MH / DMA 2000 Risk Assessment

This course provides participants with an understanding of how they can use the HAZUS-MH risk assessment methodology and tools to assist them in their efforts to conduct the community risk assessments that are necessary to be compliant with the ongoing requirements - especially mitigation planning - of the Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000 (DMA 2000).  DMA 2000, among other things, sets conditions which must be met for communities to be eligible to receive certain Federal disaster assistance. The course includes hands-on computer exercises using the HAZUS-MH software to perform risk assessment related tasks.  It focuses on the process of applying the wealth of information that HAZUS-MH includes and that it can produce to the risk assessment process rather than on learning the process of actually running HAZUS-MH.  A combination of individual as well as group hands-on exercises lead the class thru the step-by-step process of conducting a risk assessment including hazard identification, profiling of hazards, developing asset inventories, estimating losses, and prioritizing mitigation options. 

Prerequisites: None

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Comprehensive Data Management for HAZUS-MH

This course focuses on the HAZUS-MH inventory.   It is recommended for GIS analysts, database administrators, and others who will be responsible for migrating local data into the HAZUS-MH database structure.

This course provides an overview of the methodologies that were used to develop and compile the HAZUS-MH provided inventory.  However, emphasis is placed on the use of the Comprehensive Data Management System (CDMS) and other tools developed by FEMA for HAZUS-MH users interested in improving the accuracy of hazard loss estimations by integrating local data into the HAZUS-MH analysis process. Numerous hands-on exercises will empower participants with the skills to use CDMS as well as other tools to update both HAZUS-MH state geodatabases and study regions.  The course will also help participants effectively prepare for their own data updating projects by identifying those inventory elements that have the most impact on the estimation of losses for flood, earthquake, and hurricane events. 

Prerequisites: Participants in this course must complete the "Basic HAZUS-MH" course and have skills equivalent to those taught in the "Introduction to ArcGIS for HAZUS-MH Users" course.

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What is the Schedule for HAZUS-MH Training at EMI in 2008 and 2009?

COURSE
NUMBER

COURSE TITLE

DATES
 E170  Advanced HAZUS-MH for Hurricane February 4-7, 2008
February 2-5, 2009
 E172  Advanced HAZUS-MH for Flood January 14-17, 2008
June 16-19, 2008
January 12-15, 2009
July 27-30, 2009
 E174  Advanced HAZUS-MH for Earthquake April 21-24, 2008
April 27-30, 2009
 E179  Application of HAZUS-MH for Disaster Operations  April 14-17, 2008
April 20-23, 2009
 E190  Introduction to ArcGIS for HAZUS-MH Users February 25-28, 2008
October 20-23, 2008
February 23-26, 2009
 E296  HAZUS-MH / DMA 2000 Risk Assessment August 4-6, 2008
August 3-6, 2009
 E313  Basic HAZUS-MH April 7-10, 2008
July 14-17, 2008
December 1-4, 2008
April 6-9, 2009
July 13-19, 2009
 E317  Comprehensive Data Management for HAZUS-MH March 17-20, 2008
September 8-11, 2008
March 16-19, 2009
September 14-17, 2009

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Who Should I Contact to Enroll in HAZUS Training Courses?

To enroll, download the Admission Application or contact Ray Chevalier at (301) 447-1187 or Philip Moore at (301) 447-1248.

For further information on registration, please visit training.fema.gov/emiweb. For information about Regional training opportunities and events, go the HAZUS Regional Training page or contact Vincent Brown by e-mail at vincent.brown@dhs.gov.

Download the HAZUS-MH Training Handout

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Last Modified: Monday, 07-Jul-2008 17:27:11 EDT