Resources for Reducing Risk, Building Resilience
Reducing Risk
USGS provides the expertise, information, and resources to reduce the risk from natural hazards.
Science Application for Risk Reduction
Working to increase public safety and reduce economic losses caused by natural hazards.
Understanding Hazard Exposure
The Hazard Exposure and Reporting Analytics (HERA) website helps communities understand how natural hazards could impact their land, people, infrastructure, and livelihoods.
Science for a Risky World
The USGS Risk Plan includes recommendations for capacity building, case studies, and project ideas.
Each year, dozens, if not hundreds, of natural hazard events take place in the United States. These events can vary in size, with some being incredibly large and affecting people across several states and communities, while others are small and localized. The more we know about hazards, the better we can find ways to help communities prepare for events, stay safe when they occur, and recover once they are over.
Risk Reduction
Because of the potential severity of a single hazard event, reducing risk is a high priority for everyone, including policymakers, community members, emergency managers, resource managers, utility operators, business owners, and planners. These stakeholders demand usable, user-centric information to support decisions for planning a resilient future and for responding to and recovering from unanticipated events in more adaptable and cost-effective ways.
Examples of our risk reduction efforts include:
Preparedness
The USGS helps communities prepare for natural hazards by connecting them with research and tools to help them prepare for the unpredictable. We conduct hazard research that supports preparedness efforts and provides insights into their potential destructiveness.
Serving Diverse Communities
The USGS continues to actively improve the distribution of its valuable hazard research to all communities, particularly those that have been historically underserved, such as rural, minority, and native tribal communities.
Publications
Flood resilience in paired US–Mexico border cities: A study of binational risk perceptions
The HayWired Earthquake Scenario—Societal Consequences
Assessing hazards and risks at the Department of the Interior—A workshop report
California’s exposure to volcanic hazards
The potential for damaging earthquakes, landslides, floods, tsunamis, and wildfires is widely recognized in California. The same cannot be said for volcanic eruptions, despite the fact that they occur in the state about as frequently as the largest earthquakes on the San Andreas Fault. At least ten eruptions have taken place in the past 1,000 years, and future volcanic eruptions are inevitable.The
Toward a resilience-based conservation strategy for wetlands in Puerto Rico: Meeting challenges posed by environmental change
Science
Puerto Rico Natural Hazards | Peligros naturales de Puerto Rico
Uniting Western Restoration Strategies and Traditional Knowledge to Build Community Capacity and Climate Resilience on the Navajo Nation
Making Regional Climate Model Outputs for Hawaiʻi More Accessible to a Diverse User Community
Delivering Science to Stakeholders and the Public During the Pandemic
Coastal Change Hazards - Stakeholder Engagement and Communications
News
USGS Hazards Science – Be Informed and Be Prepared
National Preparedness Month 2020: Landslides and Sinkholes
National Preparedness Month 2020: Earthquakes and Tsunamis
Science for a risky world—A U.S. Geological Survey plan for risk research and applications
A data management and visualization framework for community vulnerability to hazards
Partnership for Community Disaster Resilience
SAFRR CORE
Producing Usable Science: Testing the Effectiveness of Stakeholder Engagement in Climate Research
Community Observations on Climate Change: Arctic Village, Fort Yukon, and Venetie, Alaska
Community Resilience to Drought Hazard: An Analysis of Drought Exposure, Impacts, and Adaptation in the South Central U.S.
SERAP: Decision Support for Stakeholders and Managers
Pedestrian Evacuation Analyst Tool
The Pedestrian Evacuation Analyst is an ArcGIS extension that estimates how long it would take for someone to travel on foot out of a hazardous area that was threatened by a sudden event such as a tsunami, flash flood, or volcanic lahar. It takes into account the elevation changes and the different types of landcover that a person would encounter along the way.
Each year, dozens, if not hundreds, of natural hazard events take place in the United States. These events can vary in size, with some being incredibly large and affecting people across several states and communities, while others are small and localized. The more we know about hazards, the better we can find ways to help communities prepare for events, stay safe when they occur, and recover once they are over.
Risk Reduction
Because of the potential severity of a single hazard event, reducing risk is a high priority for everyone, including policymakers, community members, emergency managers, resource managers, utility operators, business owners, and planners. These stakeholders demand usable, user-centric information to support decisions for planning a resilient future and for responding to and recovering from unanticipated events in more adaptable and cost-effective ways.
Examples of our risk reduction efforts include:
Preparedness
The USGS helps communities prepare for natural hazards by connecting them with research and tools to help them prepare for the unpredictable. We conduct hazard research that supports preparedness efforts and provides insights into their potential destructiveness.
Serving Diverse Communities
The USGS continues to actively improve the distribution of its valuable hazard research to all communities, particularly those that have been historically underserved, such as rural, minority, and native tribal communities.
Publications
Flood resilience in paired US–Mexico border cities: A study of binational risk perceptions
The HayWired Earthquake Scenario—Societal Consequences
Assessing hazards and risks at the Department of the Interior—A workshop report
California’s exposure to volcanic hazards
The potential for damaging earthquakes, landslides, floods, tsunamis, and wildfires is widely recognized in California. The same cannot be said for volcanic eruptions, despite the fact that they occur in the state about as frequently as the largest earthquakes on the San Andreas Fault. At least ten eruptions have taken place in the past 1,000 years, and future volcanic eruptions are inevitable.The
Toward a resilience-based conservation strategy for wetlands in Puerto Rico: Meeting challenges posed by environmental change
Science
Puerto Rico Natural Hazards | Peligros naturales de Puerto Rico
Uniting Western Restoration Strategies and Traditional Knowledge to Build Community Capacity and Climate Resilience on the Navajo Nation
Making Regional Climate Model Outputs for Hawaiʻi More Accessible to a Diverse User Community
Delivering Science to Stakeholders and the Public During the Pandemic
Coastal Change Hazards - Stakeholder Engagement and Communications
News
USGS Hazards Science – Be Informed and Be Prepared
National Preparedness Month 2020: Landslides and Sinkholes
National Preparedness Month 2020: Earthquakes and Tsunamis
Science for a risky world—A U.S. Geological Survey plan for risk research and applications
A data management and visualization framework for community vulnerability to hazards
Partnership for Community Disaster Resilience
SAFRR CORE
Producing Usable Science: Testing the Effectiveness of Stakeholder Engagement in Climate Research
Community Observations on Climate Change: Arctic Village, Fort Yukon, and Venetie, Alaska
Community Resilience to Drought Hazard: An Analysis of Drought Exposure, Impacts, and Adaptation in the South Central U.S.
SERAP: Decision Support for Stakeholders and Managers
Pedestrian Evacuation Analyst Tool
The Pedestrian Evacuation Analyst is an ArcGIS extension that estimates how long it would take for someone to travel on foot out of a hazardous area that was threatened by a sudden event such as a tsunami, flash flood, or volcanic lahar. It takes into account the elevation changes and the different types of landcover that a person would encounter along the way.