Introduction to Damage Assessment

Damage Assessment can be used to conduct initial damage assessments after a natural disaster or catastrophic incident.

Initial damage assessments are used by local officials to understand the severity and magnitude of damage to public and private property after an incident. In some cases, they may also contribute to a Joint Preliminary Damage Assessment conducted by Federal, State and Local officials after a disaster declaration. Information collected during these assessments is analyzed to determine if the incident-related costs and damages qualify for any State and/or Federal assistance. Any delays in the assessments could make an organization ineligible for State or Federal assistance. Damage Assessment is typically implemented by emergency management agencies that want to quickly understand the impact of a natural disaster, or catastrophic incident, and immediately assign resources to appropriate response and recovery activities.

The Damage Assessment solution delivers a set of capabilities that help you collect damage reports, assign initial damage assessments, monitor the impact of a disaster on the community, brief internal stakeholders, and share information with the public.

Deploy the solution

This ArcGIS solution can be deployed in your ArcGIS organization.

Deploy the solution

See Deploying a solution for more information.

Requirements

The Damage Assessment solution requires the following:

  • ArcGIS Online
  • ArcGIS Survey123
  • ArcGIS Survey123 Connect
  • ArcGIS QuickCapture

Information products

Damage Assessment includes the following information products:

ItemDescriptionMinimum User Type

Damage Assessment

An ArcGIS Hub Basic site used by emergency management agencies to share damage assessment information with internal stakeholders and the public

Not required

Damage Assessment Photo Viewer

An Attachment Viewer app use by emergency management staff and the public to view photos from windshield reports of damaged property

Not required

Public Damage Report

An ArcGIS Survey123 form used by the public to report damages to residence or businesses.

Not required

Damage Assessment Operations

An ArcGIS Experience Builder app used by emergency management staff to manage, monitor and administer damage assessments

Editor

Windshield Damage Report

An ArcGIS QuickCapture project used by public safety or trained volunteers to rapidly capture damage reports

Mobile Worker

Individual Assistance Survey

An ArcGIS Survey123 form used by field inspectors with the Survey123 app to conduct initial damage assessments for private properties

Mobile Worker

Public Assistance Survey

An ArcGIS Survey123 form used by field inspectors with the Survey123 app to conduct initial damage assessments for public-owned facilities

Mobile Worker

Public Assistance Damage Inventory

An ArcGIS Survey123 form used by field inspectors to assess initial damage for public-owned facilities.

Mobile Worker

Archive Damage Assessment

An ArcGIS Notebook used by GIS professionals to archive damage assessment reports after an incident

Creator

Damage Assessment Photo Extraction

An ArcGIS Notebook used by GIS professionals to extract every photo collected during the initial damage assessment

Creator

When you deploy this solution in your ArcGIS organization, you also get an ArcGIS solution item that organizes the key information products and summarizes all the ArcGIS items (applications, forms, projects, maps, feature layers, feature layer views, and so on) included with the solution. The ArcGIS solution item also illustrates any dependencies items have on each other.

Release notes

The following are the release notes:

VersionDescription
4.0 (Nov 2023)
  • A new Damage Assessment ArcGIS Hub Basic site.
  • A new Damage Assessment Operations ArcGIS Experience Builder app.
  • A new Public Assistance Damage Inventory, Public Assistance Survey, Individual Assistance Survey, and Public Damage Report ArcGIS Survey123 form.
  • A new Windshield Damage Report ArcGIS QuickCapture project.
  • A new Damage Assessment Photo Viewer attachment viewer app.
  • A new Archive Damage Assessment and Damage Assessment Photo Extraction ArcGIS Notebook.
  • A series of new Damage Assessment maps.
  • A series of new Damage Assessment feature layers and feature layer views that add support for FEMA's Digital Damage Surveys version 3.2.9.
3.1 (Jul 2022)
  • A new Windshield Damage Report ArcGIS QuickCapture project.
3.0 (Nov 2021)
  • A resolution to an issue where dependant questions in the Individual Assistance Express Survey weren't being displayed. This issue required updates to all related info products.
  • A new ArcGIS QuickCapture project.
  • A new Damage Assessment Photo Extraction and Archive Damage Assessment notebook.
2.0 (Jun 2021)
  • A new Damage Assessment hub site that can be used to share damage assessment information with internal stakeholders and the public.
  • A new app that can be used by the public to view photos of property damage.
  • A new app that can be used by internal stakeholders to manage, monitor and administer damage assessments.
  • A new survey form that can be used to collect public damage reports.
  • A series of new survey forms that can be used to conduct Individual Assistance and Public Assistance assessments.
  • A new ArcGIS QuickCapture project that can be used to collect Windshield Damage Reports.
  • A series of new tools that can be used to collaborate with other agencies, share reports, export photos and archive data.
  • A series of new damage assessment layers and related feature layer views.
1.0 (Nov 2020)
  • First release of Damage Assessment.