North Carolina is subject to numerous natural hazards, posing risk to life and property. To mitigate the effects of such hazards, the State has established the North Carolina Integrated Hazard Risk Management (IHRM) program, a new initiative that aims to provide valuable risk information supporting prevention, response, and mitigation activities.

Risk is defined as the probability of harmful consequences (e.g., death, injury, property damage) resulting from interactions between a given natural hazard and the vulnerable conditions¹ (e.g. people and their environment).  The overall goals of IHRM are to:

• Reduce risk from natural hazards;
• Improve resilience of the public and private sectors following hazards;
• Reduce the time for recovery through preparation; and
• Coordinate decision making by the public and private sectors through common operating data.

In order to improve an individual’s, a community’s, and the State’s ability to manage risk, the IHRM program aims to:

• Identify and communicate key natural hazards impacting North Carolina;
• Identify and communicate key vulnerable systems (structures, population, critical infrastructure) within the State;
• Identify and model the interdependency between the 18 critical infrastructure and key resource sectors (CI/KRs) and the consequence from upon failure;
• Develop methodology and metrics for assessing risk and risk reduction;
• Develop methodology and metrics for prioritizing risk reduction actions; and
• Design tools that effectively analyze and communicate risk and risk reduction.

The State of North Carolina, through the Division of Emergency Management – Office of Geospatial and Technology Management (GTM), has received federal funding through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to develop and demonstrate a strategy to reduce risk through a more Integrated Hazard Risk Management (IHRM) approach. This demonstration project will focus on integrating and enhancing processes, data, methodologies and communication tools associated with natural hazard identification, risk assessment, risk communication, and mitigation. It is envisioned that this demonstration will help define FEMA’s National “Risk MAP” Program and better bridge hazard risk information with hazard mitigation planning.

 ¹ United Nations, 2002