The RAPID Facility

The RAPID Facility enables transformative research by providing investigators with the resources, software, and support needed to collect, process, and analyze perishable data from natural hazard events and disasters.
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RAPID Training

The RAPID Facility trains investigators to use state-of-the-art reconnaissance resources. Our popular one-week hands-on training takes place in July at our headquarters at the University of Washington in Seattle.
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Science Plan

The RAPID Facility's Science Plan emphasizes acquiring and integrating data across disciplines over a range of temporal, spatial, and social scales. The Science Plan is published in an open-access article.
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Next-Generation Science and Engineering Reconnaissance to Enhance Community Resilience

The RAPID Facility provides researchers with state-of-the-art reconnaissance instrumentation and technical expertise to collect critical disaster data, informing science, engineering and policy to strengthen community resilience.

 
100+ unique deployment locations70+ collaborating institutions served20 types of hazards and disasters supported
850+ researchers trained on RAPID equipment200+ reconnaissance missions supported160+ publications using RAPID data
Recent RAPID Projects
Featured
Oso Landslide
Oso Landslide

Our drone-mounted aerial lidar scanners were recently deployed to the site of the 2014 Oso Landslide to map changes to the area over the past decade.

Hurricane Hilary
Hurricane Hilary

RAPID Facility staff deployed with terrestrial LiDAR to support the Center for Land-Surface Hazards (CLaSH) to document damage in Death Valley National Park and San Bernardino County following Hurricane Hilary in 2023.

Freshwater Algae Blooms
Freshwater Algae Blooms

Typical water sampling can leave gaps in assessing entire bodies of water. Our multispectral camera was mounted to a UAS platform to calculate algae bloom indices of a lake.

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What’s New
Featured
Now accepting applications for the 2026 NHERI RAPID 4-Day Intensive Hands-On Training Workshop
Now accepting applications for the 2026 NHERI RAPID 4-Day Intensive Hands-On Training Workshop

Held July 21 to 24 at the University of Washington in Seattle, this in-person, hands-on training will build expertise in using RAPID equipment to collect, process, and integrate reconnaissance data using mobile tools and the DesignSafe cyberinfrastructure, with proposal development focused on interdisciplinary engineering and environmental exposures and health research.

New Funding Opportunity: Health and Extreme Weather Research Award Program
New Funding Opportunity: Health and Extreme Weather Research Award Program

The Natural Hazards Center is now accepting proposals for the Health and Extreme Weather Research Award Program. Awards range from $10,000 to $50,000 to support perishable, health relevant data collection within six months of an extreme weather event.

New Data Brief: High-Resolution Imagery and 3D Models from the 2025 LA Fires
New Data Brief: High-Resolution Imagery and 3D Models from the 2025 LA Fires

RAPID has released a new data brief on high resolution aerial imagery and 3D models collected after the 2025 Los Angeles fires. The brief describes key data products, what makes the dataset unique, and how to access it through NHERI DesignSafe. It is intended for researchers, practitioners, educators, and community users.

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