The National Risk and Capability Assessment (NRCA) is a suite of assessments that examines risks and capabilities at both the community and national levels. It identifies national preparedness requirements, community capabilities, and gaps. The NRCA helps target resources and investments to improve emergency preparedness and response. It also informs emergency management activities like planning, exercises, and operations. In 2019, FEMA released the National Risk Assessment and will begin the National Capability Assessment in 2020 to analyze national-level gaps.

1. The National Risk and Capability Assessment (NRCA)
December 4, 2019

2. Federal Emergency Management Agency
The National Preparedness Goal
 The National Preparedness Goal (“the Goal”) is the cornerstone
of the National Preparedness System (NPS)
 The Goal outlines five mission areas and 32 core capabilities
that define preparedness
 The NPS describes a whole-community process employed to
build, sustain, and deliver the core capabilities to achieve the
Goal
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A secure and resilient Nation with the capabilities required across the whole community to
prevent, protect against, mitigate, respond to, and recover from the threats and hazards
that pose the greatest risk

3. Federal Emergency Management Agency
The National Risk and Capability Assessment (NRCA)
 The NRCA is a suite of risk and capability assessments that when analyzed together paint a picture of national
preparedness
 Community-level Risk and Capability Assessment
 National-level Risk Assessment and Capability Assessment
 The NRCA looks at community capabilities and then asks what
capabilities the rest of the Nation can provide to support those
communities
 These assessments will identify:
 National requirements
 Community capabilities
 National and federal capabilities
 National gaps 3
FEMA is required by law to establish “tiered, capability-specific performance objectives” to
assess national preparedness

4.  In 2018, FEMA updated the methodology
for the risk and capability assessments to
simplify the overall process, standardize
the data, and help communities conduct
more comprehensive assessments
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NRCA Components: Community Risk and Capability Assessment
The Community Risk and Capability Assessment helps communities answer fundamental
strategic questions about their preparedness

5.  Impacts are the likely outcomes of a threat or a hazard that drive capability requirements, which are
measured by a capability target
 Each target contains an impact and a timeframe metric structured around operational outcomes
 Impacts drive the level of capability required to manage the events
 Timeframe metrics describe when, or for how long, a capability needs to be delivered to manage the
event
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NRCA Components: Community Risk and Capability
Assessment – Standard Language
All communities that complete the Community Risk and Capability Assessment use
standard impact and capability target language

6.  The 2019 National RiskAssessment follows the Community RiskAssessment process, using models and
subject matter expert feedback to:
 Identify threats and hazards that would most stress the Nation’s capabilities and their likely impacts
 Describe the national capability required to manage those events
 The National Capability Assessment (development beginning in 2020) will follow the Community capability
assessment process and:
 Assess the level of capability federal departments and agencies, non-governmental organizations, and the private
sector can provide to support communities
 Describe the national gaps that still remain after that support is provided
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NRCA Components: National Risk and Capability Assessment
The National Risk and Capability Assessments use the same metrics and processes as
communities to determine national-level capability gaps

7. Federal Emergency Management Agency
The NRCA and Emergency Management
How the NRCA Drives Emergency Management:
 Planning: Enables plans to more accurately reflect risk and
capability
 Exercises: Provides scenarios and data to support exercise
development and evaluation
 Operations: Helps to facilitate conversions about community
capability and inform Federal operational support
 Continuous Improvement: Supports the evaluation of existing
capabilities to either validate them or identify areas for
improvement
 Training & Other Investments: Strategic investments help to
target and prioritize funding and resources to the areas of
greatest need, and to ensure grants are used effectively
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8.  2019: Release National RiskAssessment
 Published a document outlining the process and methodology (NationalTHIRA: Overview and
Methodology) in July 2019
 2020: Begin NationalCapabilityAssessment
 The process to develop the National Capability Assessment will begin in 2020
 When complete, FEMA will release public results of the NRCA through the National Preparedness
Report
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Next Steps: NRCA Products