Hazus in King County, Washington: The Story of a Comprehensive Risk Assessment

Abstract:

STARR II performed Hazus earthquake and flood assessments as part of a broader multi-hazard risk assessment for King County, Washington in 2017 on behalf of FEMA Region X and the FEMA Risk MAP Program.

The presentation will cover:

STARR II’s approach to the scale of the analysis: The project area covers a population of approximately 1.9 million people, forty jurisdictions including the city of Seattle, and a significant number of structures, about 530,000, as part of the analysis. The Hazus assessment provided two main challenges prior to completing the assessment:

1. Lifting applicable data from the County from a prior analysis
2. Configuring a large scale data import into the Hazus User Defined Facility (UDF) and Advanced Engineering Building Module (AEBM),

STARR II’s integration of earthquake and flood Hazus outputs with other hazard datasets: Outputs from the assessment were integrated with other hazard assessments - exposure assessments on erosion, lahar, landslide, liquefaction, and tsunami from data provided by local, state, and federal agencies and combined into a multi-hazard risk database and risk report.

STARR II’s communication strategies on the large scale dataset to promote risk reduction: Site-specific findings were configured to show hotspots via hazard counts and damage thresholds, with tailored mitigation strategies to essential facilities and structures with multiple identifiable risks. Results were aggregated to a tile level to avoid Personally Identifiable Information and shared on an easy-to-use FEMA GeoPlatform hosted by ArcGIS Online. Additionally, limitations to the analysis and input data were communicated throughout the process, inspiring project area communities to collaborate on the next round of data collection to better understand local risk.