Hazard Mitigation

These are activities that reduce the severity of incident impacts.  Our goal is to focus on the primary hazards that are most likely to impact UMBC as determined by risk assessments.

Hazard Vulnerability Risk Assessment

Our Hazard Vulnerability Risk Assessment (HVRA) identifies the most likely sources of harm to the UMBC community.  These are the types of emergencies where we want to focus our preparedness efforts.  Each hazard receives an overall risk score in our assessment.  Risk combines the likelihood of a hazard and its impact:

  • Primary Overall Hazard:  Utility or Infrastructure Outage has the highest overall R score.
  • Primary Natural Hazard:  Severe Storm (tornadoes, high winds, severe thunderstorms, hurricanes, and tropical storms).
  • Primary Accidental Hazard:  Utility or Infrastructure Outage (water, power, heating or cooling systems, elevators, or fire alarm and sprinkler system outages).
  • Primary Intentional Hazard:  Crime Against Property (any form of theft or intentional damage caused to property owned by an individual or owned by the University).
  • HVRA Overview – August 2023

Emergency Action Procedures are short checklists that simplify operational procedures for specific threats or hazards.  These are the immediate actions taken during an incident or disruption to mitigate impacts on safety, security, or operations.  They state no more than five immediate actions anyone can take to mitigate impacts: 1) detect; 2) verify; 3) notify; 4) act; and 5) end.

Note:  These EAPs are for emergencies other than an active assailant.  See our active assailant awareness resources for information on this type of emergency.

  • Building Evacuation – Coming Soon
  • Shelter-In-Place – Coming Soon
  • Medical Emergency – Coming Soon
  • Severe Storms – Coming Soon
  • Utility or Infrastructure Outage – Coming Soon
  • Crime Against Property – Coming Soon

Emergency Action Plans are longer and more detailed.  They document critical institutional knowledge and provide situational awareness over time.  UMBC will maintain an Emergency Action Plan for each of the primary natural, accidental, and intentional hazards determined by the Hazard Vulnerability Risk Assessment (HVRA).

  • Primary Natural Hazard Plan:  Severe Storms – Coming Soon
  • Primary Accidental Hazard Plan:  Utility or Infrastructure Outage – Coming Soon
  • Primary Intentional Hazard Plan:  Crime Against Property – Coming Soon

The Facility Emergency Action Plan (FEAP) facilitates workplace, learning space, and living area readiness.  Each building on campus will have a FEAP that centralizes all it’s unique emergency management information in one document.   Contact your Facility Manager to review your building’s FEAP.

Expect these plans to be long, comprehensive documents, capturing all institutional and specialized knowledge about each of our buildings.  Because of this complexity, the FEAP is NOT meant for response.  It is a reference guide to facilitate additional planning and training.  See our library of Response Guides for printable, one-page (front and back) pamphlets that provide vital readiness information and immediate life safety instructions.  Additional FEAP resources: