VDFP Launches First Statewide Community Risk Assessment Dashboard

VDFP has launched Virginia's first statewide Community Risk Assessment Dashboard, a geospatial tool to help fire service leaders identify, prioritize and reduce community risks.

GLEN ALLEN, Va. — The Virginia Department of Fire Programs (VDFP) has launched its first statewide Community Risk Assessment Dashboard, providing Virginia's fire service with a centralized, data-driven resource to better understand community risks and inform prevention, mitigation and emergency response strategies.

The public-facing dashboard brings together risk indicators, community characteristics, fire department information and operational data in a single geospatial environment. The resource is designed to help fire service leaders and community partners identify and prioritize local risks, followed by the integrated and strategic investment of resources to reduce their occurrence and impact.

"Establishing a timely and transparent community risk assessment tool for Virginia's fire service stakeholders has been a top priority for me since taking on the Coordinator of Community Risk Reduction position in February 2026," said Sarah Kenny, VDFP Coordinator of Community Risk Reduction. "The solution brings together risk indicators, community characteristics, departmental information and operational workflows and fosters unified readiness coordination across the Commonwealth."

"While the community risk assessment process operates best at the local level, VDFP can now identify regional and Commonwealth-wide patterns, gaps, and opportunities for strategic support. Departments who do not yet have data-informed information and intelligence about their risk profile now have a place to start," Kenny said.

The geospatial solution supports risk evaluation before plans and programs are implemented, allowing communities to identify opportunities to reduce, mitigate or eliminate hazards.

The dashboard incorporates information across the nine community risk assessment profiles identified in NFPA Standard 1300, including:

• Demographics
• Geographic characteristics
• Building stock
• Public safety response agencies
• Community service organizations
• Hazards
• Economic characteristics
• Past loss and event history
• Critical infrastructure systems

"This solution is more than an application," said GFT, Inc., the team who developed the solution in partnership with VDFP. "It is an expandable community risk reduction workflow that brings together data collection, analysis, reporting, collaboration and decision support within VDFP's ArcGIS Online organization."

VDFP developed the solution to provide a sustainable foundation that can evolve with the needs of Virginia communities. VDFP retains control of its applications, configurations, users, permissions and agency-owned data, while configurable technology and authoritative external data sources allow the resource to expand over time.

Community Risk Assessment Workshops

To help Virginia fire service leaders put the new resource into practice, VDFP is hosting a series of Community Risk Assessment workshops across the Commonwealth from October 2026 through January 2027.

The one-day workshops will bring together VDFP and partners including the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), NERIS, GFT and Esri to help fire service community risk reduction leaders begin using the dashboard and incorporate geospatial risk information into their local prevention and mitigation efforts.

Space for the workshops is limited.

Learn more about Virginia's Community Risk Assessment resources

For questions, please reach out to communityrisk@vdfp.virginia.gov.

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