Economic and Human Consequences

The fundamental metrics for consequence assessment in NISAC analyses are population and economic impact. NISAC uses a mixture of proprietary commercial software and in-house modeling and simulation capability to provide first-in-class estimates of these impacts.

• Social Vulnerability Analysis
  A key aspect of a community's resilience in the face of a disaster is its inherent social vulnerability. Social vulnerability is defined in terms of the demographic characteristics that are known to increase the likelihood of negative outcomes following a disaster. These factors include workforce participation, race and ethnicity, age of population, poverty, household characteristics, and percentage of population in rural and urban locations. NISAC estimates socioeconomic vulnerability using the Social Vulnerability Index (SoVI) methodology.  
• Economic Analysis
  During emergency events, DHS and other agencies need rapid turnaround analyses of the potential economic impacts from a disaster and other events that can affect infrastructure systems. NISAC's FastEcon geospatial tool measures economic impacts incurred in any area of the United States. FastECON can quickly analyze threats to our nation’s economy and identify economically vulnerable locations. 
• Population Analysis
  NISAC uses a suite of agent-based modeling tools to assess the potential affects of disasters, pandemics,and transportation disruptions (among others) on the Nation's population. NISAC's suite of tools includes the Agent Framework Simulation model, ActivitySim, EpiSimS, and HURT.