The Resilience Analysis and Planning Tool (RAPT) is a free GIS web map that allows federal, state, local, tribal and territorial emergency managers and other community leaders to examine the interplay of census data, infrastructure locations, and hazards, including real-time weather forecasts, historic disasters and projected hazard risk.
Access the Resilience Analysis & Planning Tool
This webpage provides information about the use and functionality of RAPT, including training resources and supporting documents. These include:
- A PowerPoint overview of RAPT, including the Community Resilience Indicator Analysis used to identify relevant population and community indicators;
- Multiple training videos, including a one-hour demonstration of RAPT and shorter how-to tutorial videos focused on specific RAPT functions;
- Supporting documents that include a RAPT Overview and complete User Guide with step-by-step instructions on the tools and functionality within RAPT.
View RAPT training resources and supporting documents.
Ways to Use RAPT
By combining data layers, users can create community maps to inform preparedness, response and recovery strategies.
Example: Users can look at the current National Weather Service forecast for extreme flooding, then add census layers to view at-risk vulnerable populations and infrastructure locations, such as individuals with disabilities and the location and size of mobile home parks.
Analysis tools allow users to identify infrastructure within a defined area and calculate population counts. Users can also download data from RAPT for further analysis.
Please email us with questions or to share how you are using RAPT.
Training Resources
RAPT Overview PowerPoint
This PowerPoint provides an overview of the Community Resilience Indicator Analysis and the RAPT functions.
RAPT Overview Webinar
This one-hour video provides a comprehensive overview of RAPT and all its tools and functions. If you would like to focus on a specific aspect of RAPT, please see our How-To Tutorial videos below
How-To Tutorials
These how-to tutorials focus on specific aspects and functions of RAPT. For users who are new to RAPT, we recommend viewing these tutorials in order, as each video builds on the concepts and functionality presented in the previous videos.
View all RAPT videos on YouTube
Background information on the development of RAPT, an interactive data visualization and analysis tool. Highlights links to the RAPT User Guide and other supporting documents and shows basic navigation functions.
Community Resilience Indicator Layers [13:29]
Describes the county and census tract community resilience indicators and how to toggle them on and off to visualize the data on the map. Shows how to use the pop-up boxes to get detailed information on the indicator for both county and census tract data.
Attribute Table - View, Filter, and Export Data [14:35]
Discusses the attribute table which displays all the indicator and infrastructure information in a tabular form and allows for export of the data in an Excel spreadsheet.
Infrastructure and Hazard Layers [13:46]
Reviews how to access the infrastructure and hazard data layers as well as how to identify the sources of all data layers. Demonstrates how to visualize the data on the map as well as download the data using the attribute table.
Basic RAPT Tools - Basemap Gallery, Toolbox and Add Data [12:43]
Reviews the different available basemap options and where different basemaps may be useful for different types of analysis. Covers the Draw, Print, and Measurement tools available in the Toolbox as well as how to add a data layer.
Advanced RAPT Tools - Incident Analysis and Summarize Selected Indicators [9:56]
Describes how to use the Incident Analysis Tool, including how to set buffer zones and look at infrastructure information within that zone. Shows you how to use the Summarize Selected Indicators.
Advanced RAPT Tools - Query: Census Tracts and Hospitals [7:01]
Provides an overview of how to use the query tool to see all the census tracts in a county or state. The second query tool help identify hospitals by trauma level.
Advanced RAPT Tools - Selection and Population Count [8:43]
Describes how to use the Selection Tool to analyze infrastructure, county, and census tract information. Shows how to sum the population in a given area using the Selection and Population Count tools together.
RAPT: National Weather Service (NWS) Forecast Outlook Layers [13:48]
Features Chris Maier, NWS National Warning Coordination Meteorologist, who explains the real-time weather forecast layers on RAPT. These forecast layers include outlooks for severe weather, excessive rainfall, river flooding and Atlantic/Caribbean tropical cyclones. The video also discusses how to use RAPT’s analytic tools to identify populations and infrastructure vulnerable to these hazards.
RAPT Supporting Documents
- RAPT Overview: A one-page introduction to RAPT.
- RAPT User Guide: Describes how to use RAPT’s various features and tools.
- RAPT Data Layers and Sources: Summary list of all RAPT data layers and the data source for each layer.
- Community Resilience Indicator Analysis (CRIA): County-Level Analysis of Commonly Used Indicators from Peer-Reviewed Research (Full Report): Comprehensive analysis of peer-reviewed research to identify the discrete indicators of community resilience used in multiple methodologies. This analysis identified the 20 census and community data-layers included in RAPT.
- Community Resilience Indicator Research Summary: Provides the following summary for each community resilience indicator: including the indicator’s connection to resilience, the data source, national average, and binning method. .
- CRIA Correlation Analysis: Describes how individual community resilience indicators are correlated to each other (positively and negatively). Communities can design resilience strategies that take these relationships into account.