Configure Hazard Mitigation Planning

Hazard Mitigation Planning can be used to conduct geospatial hazard risk assessments and share hazard mitigation planning information.

In this topic, you'll learn how to configure the Hazard Mitigation Planning solution to meet specific needs of your organization.

Tip:

As you configure the solution, record the configurations or alterations you make with each version in a change log. This information will be valuable if you upgrade to a new version and need to evaluate the effort required.

Configure the Hazard Mitigation Outreach site

The Hazard Mitigation Planning solution includes the Hazard Mitigation Outreach ArcGIS Hub site. This site can be configured with your organization's branding and used to share information with the public.

Upload draft Hazard Mitigation Plan

Part of the hazard mitigation planning process includes public feedback on the draft of the plan update. The Hazard Mitigation Outreach Hub site includes a gallery section to facilitate feedback on draft plans. This will require you to first upload the draft plan as an item in your ArcGIS organization.

To upload your jurisdiction's draft Hazard Mitigation Plan, complete the following steps:

1. Verify that you are signed in to your ArcGIS organization and browse to the Content section.
2. Click New item.
3. Follow the steps to upload or link to your jurisdiction's draft plan and click Next.
4. Add the item information as appropriate, including a title and summary, and click Save.
5. From your draft plan item page, click Share.
6. Click Everyone (public) and click Save.

Update with organizational information

After deploying the Hazard Mitigation Planning solution, the Hazard Mitigation Outreach Hub site layout requires a few updates to fit your local context.

To update the site with your organizational information, complete the following steps:

1. In a browser open the Hazard Mitigation Outreach site.
2. From the item page, click Configure.
3. If necessary, click the Edit button to open the site editor.
4. Scroll through the site and identify the sections that you want to update with information specific to your organization.
5. Edit the content with information specific to your organization.
6. Scroll to the Engage with the draft plan section. Hover over the left side Gallery card and click the edit pencil that appears in the horizontal toolbar.
7. Click Select Content and browse to the draft Hazard Mitigation Plan item you uploaded previously.
8. Check the item and click Save.
9. Scroll to the Frequently Asked Questions section, hover over the card, click the edit pencil, and update the questions and answers.
10. To modify your site’s footer, on the left, click the Customize Toggle button .
11. In the side panel, click Footer.

    A custom footer is provided. In most cases, you will need to update it with your organization's branding, contact information, and social media references.

12. Click the HTML box.

    The HTML window appears.

13. Make the necessary changes and click Apply.
14. Click Save.
15. When you are finished, click the Save drop-down arrow and click Publish Draft.

Share items with the public

Several layer views, maps, and apps included in the Hazard Mitigation Planning solution must be shared with everyone so they can be accessed by the public on the Hazard Mitigation Outreach site.

To share items with the public, complete the following steps:

1. Verify that you are signed in to your ArcGIS organization and browse to the Hazard Mitigation Planning folder.
2. Next to each of the following items, check the check box:

   Name	Item type
   Additional Hazards Map	Web Map
   AreaOfInterest_public	Feature layer (hosted, view)
   Community Resilience Map	Web Map
   Drought Hazard Map	Web Map
   Earthquake Hazard Map	Web Map
   Extreme Heat Hazard Map	Web Map
   Flood Hazard Map	Web Map
   Hazard Explorer	Instant App
   Hazard Mitigation Outreach	Hub Site Application
   Hazard Mitigation Plan Feedback	Form
   HazardMitigationPlanFeedback_form	Feature layer (hosted, view)
   HazardMitigationProjects_public	Feature layer (hosted, view)
   HistoricalHazardEvents_public	Feature layer (hosted, view)
   Hurricane Hazard Map	Web Map
   Landslide Hazard Map	Web Map
   Mitigation Project Viewer	Instant App
   Mitigation Project Viewer Map	Web Map
   Partner Engagement	Hub page
   Projects	Hub page
   Social Vulnerability Map	Web Map
   Tornado and Strong Wind Hazard Map	Web Map
   Wildfire Hazard Map	Web Map
   Winter Storm Hazard Map	Web Map

   Note:

   If you add additional content to items that are shared publicly, be sure to follow best practices.

3. Click Share.
4. In the Share window, click Everyone (public) and click Save.

   The Warning: Sharing editable layers publicly message appears notifying you that you are sharing editable layers publicly.

5. Click Update.

Organize your data

Note:

This workflow is optional and doesn't need to be completed to work with the solution.

The Hazard Mitigation Planning solution is supported without requiring data. However, an area of interest layer is included with the solution to help geographically define your hazard risk assessment. Additionally, some jurisdictions may have critical infrastructure, hazard mitigation projects, or historical hazard events data that can be loaded into layers in the solution.

Before you load data, it is important to ensure your data has the appropriate information and is organized correctly to make use of the solution. To match the layer schema, you can either download the provided layers and modify your data's fields and domains before loading, or calculate fields to match after appending your data in the following Load data from a shapefile or file geodatabase section.

Area of Interest

Each of the maps included in the solution also have the area of interest layer included by default. For ease of use, you may wish to append your jurisdictional boundary to this layer rather than manually adding it for each map. You may also wish to include multiple boundaries in this layer if you are conducting a multi-jurisdictional hazard mitigation risk assessment.

The area of interest data should have the following required field and value:

Field Alias Name	Description
Name	The name of the area of interest.

Critical Infrastructure

Many communities have identified critical infrastructure facilities vital to a community's safety and security; for example, power plants, water treatment facilities, and other systems. A critical infrastructure layer is included in the solution based on the critical infrastructure sectors defined by the United States federal government. You can load data into this layer and make it available to the solution or, if you do not have this data, you can use the Edit panel in the Critical Infrastructure map of the Hazard Risk Assessment Maps app to add critical infrastructure feature locations and related information.

The critical infrastructure data should have the following required fields and values:

Field Alias Name	Description
Name of Facility	The name of the critical infrastructure facility.
Sector	A value from one of the defined 16 sectors: such as Chemical Sector, Commercial Facilities, Communications, Critical Manufacturing, Dams, Defense Industrial Base, Emergency Services, Energy, Financial Services, Food and Agriculture, Government Facilities, Healthcare and Public Health, Information Technology, Nuclear Reactors, Materials and Waste, Transportation Systems, Water and Wastewater Systems, and Others.
Full Address	The full address of the critical infrastructure facility.

There are several other optional fields for critical infrastructure, such as point of contact information and the operating hours (using the Opening Hours Specification) that may be useful.

Hazard Mitigation Projects

Hazard mitigation projects funded by FEMA's Hazard Mitigation Assistance Program and other sources help communities mitigate the impact of natural disasters and increase the resilience of people and infrastructure. By making information about these projects available, public trust and transparency is increased and the public and other resilience stakeholders can better understand ongoing hazard mitigation efforts. You can load data into this layer and make it available to the solution or, if you do not have this data, you can use the Mitigation Project Inventory app to add project locations and related information. The included hazard mitigation projects layer has sub-layers for points and polygons.

The hazard mitigation projects data should have the following required fields and values:

Field Alias Name	Description
Project Name	The name of the project.
Project Number	The project number.
Project Type	Mitigation project type, described in the FEMA Hazard Mitigation Assistance Guide that highlights common project types. A domain list is provided that includes the following project types: Aquifer Recharge, Storage and Recovery, Flood Risk Reduction, Floodproofing, Mitigation Reconstruction, Property Acquisition for Open Space, Retrofit, Safe Room, Secondary Power Source, Stabilization, Structure Elevation, Tsunami Vertical Evacuation Refuge, Warning System, Wildfire Mitigation, and Other.

Historical Hazard Events

FEMA-approved Hazard Mitigation Plans require a history of past disasters and hazard events in the jurisdiction. When stored in a geospatial format, historical hazard data is valuable to help to understand risk and conduct spatial analysis. A historical hazard events layer based on the Spatial Hazard Events and Losses Database (SHELDUS) schema and the National Risk Index (NRI) is included with the solution. This retrospective data can be obtained from your jurisdiction records, open source data such as FEMA's HAZUS toolkit and the National Centers for Environmental Information, or from hazard loss databases such as SHELDUS and the NCDC Storm Events Database. You can also import data from a feature service or spreadsheet. The included historical hazard events layer has sub-layers for points, lines, and polygons.

The historical hazard events data should have the following required fields and values:

Field Alias Name	Description
Event Name	The name of the hazard event.
Type of Event	The type of event. A domain list is provided that includes the following event types: Avalanche, Coastal, Drought, Earthquake, Flood, Fog, Hail, Heat, Hurricane or Tropical Storm, Landslide, Lightning, Severe Thunderstorm, Tornado, Tsunami, Volcano, Wildfire, Wind, Winter Storm, and Other.

Load data from a shapefile or file geodatabase

Note:

This workflow is optional and doesn't need to be completed to work with the solution.

Optionally, you can load existing data into the area of interest, critical infrastructure, hazard mitigation projects, or historical hazard events data using the append tools available in ArcGIS Online.

To load data from a shapefile or file geodatabase, complete the following steps:

1. Create a .zip file of your area of interest shapefile or file geodatabase.
2. Verify that you are signed in to your ArcGIS organization and browse to the AreaOfInterest feature layer.
3. From the item page, click Update Data.
4. Follow the steps in the Update data wizard to load your data.

Tip:

For more information about uploading data, see Manage hosted feature layers—Append data to layers.

Tip:

For more information about how to load data using the Append tool in ArcGIS Pro, see Append (Data Management).

5. Repeat these steps to load critical infrastructure into the CriticalInfrastructure layer, hazard mitigation projects into the HazardMitigationProjects layer, and historical hazard events into the HistoricalHazardEvents layer.

Update the Hazard Explorer app

Note:

This workflow is optional and doesn't need to be completed to work with the solution.

The Hazard Explorer app is designed to share information about natural hazards to members of the public. By default, it includes a series of maps completed during the Hazard Risk Assessment Maps workflow. The maps depict some of the most common hazard types, but these may need to be updated based on your local context.

To update the information shared in the Hazard Explorer app, complete the following steps:

1. Sign in to your ArcGIS organization and browse to the Hazard Explorer app.
2. From the item page, click Configure.

   Close the Welcome to the App Setup Page splash page, if necessary.

3. In the Portfolio panel, click Add new section.
4. Click Browse for content and browse to the web map you wish to add.
5. Click Select.
6. Name the new section appropriately and click Edit description to add description text.
7. Click Done.
8. To modify existing sections, click the ellipsis symbol next to the section name and click Edit.
9. To delete existing sections, click the ellipsis symbol next to the section name and click Delete.
10. Click Publish.
11. Click Launch.

Configure group categories for map export

Note:

This workflow is optional and doesn't need to be completed to work with the solution.

You may wish to create categories for maps saved to the Hazard Risk Assessment Maps group. This will help organize and categorize the export of maps during the risk assessment workflow.

To add categories to the Hazard Risk Assessment Maps group, complete the following steps:

1. Sign in to your ArcGIS organization and click Groups at the top of the site.
2. Click Hazard Risk Assessment Maps to open the group page.
3. Click Content.
4. Click Set up group categories.
5. In the text box, enter Profile maps and click the checkbox.
6. Click + Add category, enter Hazard maps, and click the checkbox. Do the same to create the Vulnerability maps category.
7. Click Finish setup.
8. In the group content, check the following items:
   • Climate and Vegetation Map
   • Critical Infrastructure Map
   • Location and Jurisdiction Map
   • Population and Land Use Map
   • Transportation Routes Map
9. Click Categorize.
10. Check the Profile maps box and click Save.
11. Follow the same steps to categorize the Hazard maps:
    • Additional Hazards Map
    • Drought Hazard Map
    • Earthquake Hazard Map
    • Extreme Heat Hazard Map
    • Flood Hazard Map
    • Hurricane Hazard Map
    • Landslide Hazard Map
    • Tornado and Strong Wind Hazard Map
    • Wildfire Hazard Map
    • Winter Storm Hazard Map
12. Follow the same steps to categorize the Vulnerability maps:
    • Community Resilience Map
    • Social Vulnerability Map
    • Vulnerable Assets Map