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Natural Hazards
Metadata
Variable Definitions:
This dataset presents the Expected Annual Loss in a given area for five different natural hazards compared to all other places across the United States:
- Wildfires
- Drought
- Coastal flooding
- Earthquakes
- Heat waves
Expected Annual Loss estimates the loss of buildings, people and agriculture in the event of a natural disaster. Values are expressed in percentiles across the nation (ex. Malibu’s Coastal Flooding score of 75 means that this community would expect to experience more losses from coastal flooding than 75% of all other at-risk communities across the United States.
Methodology
The Expected Annual Loss takes into account three factors:
- frequency (probability of the event occurring)
- exposure (populations/infrastructure directly affected)
- Historic Loss (percentage of the exposed assets expected to be lost based on previous events)
It is important to note that the percentiles expressed on NDSC are percentiles compared across the nation. Percentiles are calculated by comparing an area only to all other similarly at-risk areas in the country. For example, Santa Monica is in the 23rd percentile for coastal flooding risk. Not only would the neighborhood expect to experience more losses from flooding than 23% of other coastal communities across the United States, it would also expect more losses than the non-coastal communities that are not included in the percentile.
For more information on FEMA’s Risk Index methodology, visit their learn more page.
Source:
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)’s National Risk Index
Years Available:
2023
Why are these variables important to measure?
Coming soon!
Citation:
Federal Emergency Management Agency. “National Risk Index”. Department of Homeland Security. Retrieved from https://hazards.fema.gov/nri/learn-more
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