FEMA's Resilience Analysis and Planning Tool (RAPT)
Presentation Outline:
The Resilience Analysis and Planning Tool is a free, easy-to-use, R&D 100 award-wining Geographic Information System (GIS) webmap tool. It allows users to combine layers of community resilience indicators, infrastructure locations, and hazard data to visualize, prioritize and implement strategies for community outreach, planning, resilience, response and recovery planning. This RAPT presentation will provide background information on RAPT, discuss the data layers and sources in the tool and cover some exciting new features and data sets in RAPT after the updated version went live on April 6, 2021. This update includes the latest census data from the American Community Survey five-year data from 2015-2019, including tribal census data and a new data layer on broadband access data. In addition, FEMA added data on National Flood Insurance Program penetration rates for residential buildings in special flood hazard areas. The presentation will also include a live demonstration of RAPT, allowing users to see real-time hazard data and community resilience indicator information for their specific region in Texas.
About The Speakers:
Benjamin Rance is a Management and Program Analyst in the Technical Assistance Branch of the National Integration Center, serving as Project Lead for the Resilience Analysis and Planning Tool. In addition to working at FEMA, he has over six years of experience working in international development for the Peace Corps, both overseas and in Washington, DC. Benjamin holds a Master’s Degree in Natural Resources Management and Geography from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and he received his undergraduate degree in Environmental Studies from Western Michigan University. Originally from the Great State of Michigan, Benjamin enjoys playing soccer, speaking Spanish, outdoor activities, and meeting new people.
Carmella Burdi is a Senior Geographic Information Systems Analyst in the Decision and Infrastructure Sciences Division at Argonne National Laboratory. Her background in geospatial systems and emergency management allows her to develop geographic decision-making tools for sponsors such as FEMA and other agencies within DHS. She currently provides geospatial analysis, creates geospatial toolsets and provides cartographic support to a variety of sponsors. Prior to her position with Argonne, she spent 8 years at DuPage County supporting county government and the local Emergency Operations Center, Sheriff’s Office and Health Department. She is a certified GISP as well as an adjunct instructor at Elmhurst University (Elmhurst, IL). She holds an MS in Geographic Information Sciences.
Lesley Edgemon has eighteen years of emergency management practitioner and doctrinal development experience working at local and federal levels. Her research focuses primarily on evaluating disaster risk and identifying solutions for increasing community resilience. Currently, she is working on building a readiness evaluation framework for FEMA, supporting State and Local Emergency Managers in building Evacuation and Shelter-in-Place plans, supporting FEMA's PrepTalks program, and managing the Resilience and Analysis Planning Tool, a GIS tool focused on providing an understanding of communities through publicly available data (fema.gov/rapt). She has published several emergency management research papers focusing on understanding existing resilience and evacuation research. She has an MA in Communication, Culture, and Technology from Georgetown University and her BA in English Literature from Kansas State University. She also serves as a volunteer EMT-B, ambulance officer and driver, and Virginia State EMT-Basic instructor as part of the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department.
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