Hazard Ready Nation
Strategy for a Hazard Ready Nation (2026-2031)
Actionable Science for Risk Reduction
The devastating impacts of hazard events like landslides, earthquakes, volcanoes, coastal and riverine floods, geomagnetic storms, droughts, and wildfires, are felt by communities across the nation. However, the potential effects of future extreme events can be reduced by taking action — together we can create a more resilient Hazard Ready Nation.
Hazard Ready Nation is a unified approach to risk communication, research, and product development that ensures the delivery of actionable information, products, and services that allow people to make impact-based decisions by providing easy-to-access information about:
where hazards have occurred in the past,
where hazards may occur in the future,
the potential consequences of these hazards, and
the actions individuals and communities could take to reduce losses and risk.
The strategy for an HRN is designed to guide and support USGS personnel in advancing the science, partnerships, and communication needed to ensure that USGS information is timely, relevant, accessible, and actionable for the decisionmakers and communities working to build a more hazard ready Nation.
The HRN Strategy is Grounded in Four Priorities
1. Center end- user needs: Focus USGS hazard and risk science on end- user and core partner needs.
2. Enhance research relevance: Advance USGS hazard and risk science to inform decisions to protect lives, property, and resources.
3. Support product and service development and implementation: Put USGS hazard and risk science to work in the form of actionable tools and services.
4. Improve communication: Prioritize consistent, user- focused, and actionable communication.
Examples of Hazard Ready Nation Activities at USGS
National Seismic Hazard Model helps to inform building codes, land use and hazard mitigation planning, and critical infrastructure development to help the Nation be better prepared for earthquake hazards.
ShakeAlert® Earthquake Early Warning System protects over 50 million residents and visitors in California, Oregon, and Washington. ShakeAlert® detects significant earthquakes quickly enough so that alerts can be delivered to people and automated systems potentially seconds before strong shaking arrives.
Aviation-sector specific advisories for ash emissions in partnership with the National Weather Service and the Federal Aviation Administration allows planes to be diverted away from potentially hazardous areas to keep air travel safe and uninterrupted.
Post-fire debris flow inundation assessments may inform emergency management decisions about evacuations after heavy rainfall as well as long-term hazard mitigation strategies.
Total water level and coastal change forecasts deliver short-term planning for storm events.
