WWA-03. Utah Hazard Planning Tool

Abstract
The Utah Hazard Planning (UHP) Tool was developed to provide hazard planners in Utah with information about the past incidence, current risk and future projections of hazards occurring in Utah. The UHP Tool represents an effort to gather, collate and prioritize the most useful hazard information, specific to Utah. To ensure usability of the UHP Tool, stakeholder meetings were held in March 2019 and January 2020. At stakeholder meetings, a draft of the UHP Tool was provided, feedback was solicited and then incorporated into the final version of the tool. The meetings also served to bring together hazard planners from around the state to discuss challenges and brainstorm solutions about hazard planning and incorporating climate change information into planning. Previous input from Utah stakeholders indicated that more information about the impact of climate change on hazards was needed in Utah. Where possible, the UHP Tool provides projections of future hazards, but no projections exist for many climate hazards. To provide additional information about climate change and hazards in Utah, the Climate Change Impacts Appendix was added, which provides the latest scientific understanding of how climate change will impact hazards in Utah. The UHP Tool was initially published as a report; it will be available as on online, dashboard-style tool on Western Water Assessment's website by late spring 2022.