Environmental Justice Tracker

EJ Tracker Update

FEMA Updated National Risk Index to Incorporate Social Vulnerability Data

Last updated:

March 30, 2023

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FEMA released a new update to the National Risk Index (NRI), an online mapping tool to help communities understand their risk to 18 natural hazards. The update incorporated social vulnerability data from the CDC’s Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry’s Social Vulnerability Index; new hazard-specific methodology updates for coastal flooding, drought, landslides, and other hazards; census population updates; and expanded results to all U.S. territories, among other additions. The enhancements in the update were expected to impact all metrics for all communities. The changes apply risk analysis best practices to improve the accuracy of risk metrics, make the results more intuitive, and enable trending risk over time.