HAZUS—Its Development and Its Future

Abstract

HAZUS development began in the early 1990s and continues to this day as the second maintenance release of HAZUS-MH nears completion. This paper discusses the history of HAZUS development and plans for the future. HAZUS was created with a process that included state-of-the-art review of earthquake loss estimation methods, followed by methodology and software development, and pilot testing. The model was first released for earthquakes in 1997, and consisted of an inventory database, ground motion model, building and lifeline damage models, fire following model, direct and indirect economic loss models, and casualties model. Subsequent enhancements included a new bridge damage model and a single/group building analysis model. Development of the full earthquake, flood and hurricane-capable HAZUS began in 1997, with release as HAZUS-MH in early 2004. The Flood Model included methods for assessing riverine and coastal flooding damage to buildings, transportation and utility lifelines, agricultural areas and vehicles, and debris generation, and shelter requirements. Effects of flood warning were taken into account, as were flow velocity effects. In 2002, prior to release of the full Flood Model, a Flood Information Tool was released to allow users to begin collecting and sorting local flood hazard data, as well as other pertinent data, for Level 2 analyses. The Hurricane Model adapted an existing peer-reviewed and validated model that describes the entire track and wind field of a hurricane or tropical storm as the basis for hazard characterization. Methods for assessing building damage, building and tree debris and shelter needs are also included in the Hurricane Model. Throughout the history of HAZUS, inventory data and methodology development always have been mirrored by software implementation efforts, such as InCAST, which facilitates development and organization of databases for creating building portfolios, and Building Data Import Tool (BIT), which allows easy import of tax assessors data. The release of HAZUS-MH was followed in early 2005 by the first maintenance release, HAZUS-MH MR1. Currently, four additional releases are anticipated. HAZUS was used in 2001 to estimate annualized earthquake losses for the United States. Annualized studies for all three hazards are currently being conducted with the newer versions of HAZUS.