L0102: Fundamentals of Threats and Hazards

This course is part of the National Emergency Management Basic Academy being offered in FY26.

Additional courses are:

L0101: Foundations of Emergency Management (March 23-27, 2026) at Cullman County EMA

L0103: Planning: Emergency Operations (April 16-17, 2026) at Marshall County EMA

L0105: Public Information Basics (May 4-6, 2026) at Colbert County EMA

L0146: Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program Training Course (May 7-8, 2026) at Colbert County EMA

It is not necessary to attend all of the courses in this sequence.

Course Description:

This course provides the participants with an overview of how scientific principles can be used before, during and after a disaster; including a basic understanding of scientific terminology as it applies to Emergency Management. The contents of the course include the following:

• Overview of scientific principles and the relationship between science and disasters
• Overview of climatological principles and weather-based threats and hazards
• Overview of earth science principles and geologic threats and hazards
• Overview of chemical and biological science and the scientific basis of those threats
• Overview of explosive, radiological, and nuclear science and the scientific basis of those threats

Course Objectives:

• Indicate how earth science principles and processes influence natural hazards
• Indicate how climatological principles and processes influence natural hazards
• Indicate how chemical and biological principles and processes influence natural and human-caused hazards and impact society
• Indicate the scientific basis for explosive, radiological, and nuclear hazards and their impact on society
• Indicate how scientific understanding can improve emergency preparedness

Prerequisites:

Recommended:

• IS-100.C: An Introduction to the Incident Command System, ICS 100
• IS-120.C: An Introduction to Exercises
• IS-200.C: Basic Incident Command System for Initial Response
• IS-230.E: Fundamentals of Emergency Management
• IS-700.B: An Introduction to the National Incident Management System
• IS-800.D: National Response Framework, An Introduction