How Forerunner Leverages AI to Make Hazard Management More Efficient

Local hazard managers, code officials, and building officials face several challenges in completing the work that’s needed to protect their communities. Many municipalities experience staffing shortages and other constraints that hinder their ability to process permits, conduct inspections, and ensure compliance with floodplain regulations. 

AI presents a promising solution to alleviate these challenges by automating administrative tasks, streamlining decision-making, and enabling local governments to do more with fewer resources. Municipalities can leverage AI-powered automation to ensure critical tasks, such as permitting, compliance checks, and risk assessments, are completed efficiently and accurately, alleviating administrative burdens and reducing manual labor requirements. 

Forerunner’s geospatial platform centralizes data – integrating FEMA flood maps, NFIP records, Elevation Certificates, and local datasets – so that communities can efficiently access and analyze flood risk information. Forerunner provides complete, accurate, and structured data for AI to build on, enhancing the data’s usability while streamlining and automating workflows. Unlike many AI-driven platforms that require extensive training, Forerunner is built specifically for hazard managers, ensuring seamless integration with existing workflows. Instead of replacing current systems, Forerunner enhances them, making AI an asset, not an obstacle.

At Forerunner, we use AI in several ways to create more intelligent file management that streamlines hazard management and communications workflows:

Elevation Certificate (EC) Automation. Forerunner leverages machine learning to extract extensive data sets and then apply smart logic to flag errors, eliminating manual data entry while improving accuracy. This helps hazard managers quickly identify and correct EC issues, an impactful solution for communities participating in FEMA’s Community Rating System (CRS) where precise documentation impacts flood insurance rates. Forerunner recently released automated EC error summaries which hazard managers can send directly to surveyors or property owners, simplifying corrections.

Here’s how it works: When ECs are uploaded to an account, Forerunner geocodes the documents and attaches them to the correct property profile on the Forerunner map. The EC Error Detection Feature automatically runs hundreds of validation checks on ECs, identifying potential clerical, compliance, and elevation issues. Staff can quickly identify and correct issues to ensure accurate, complete submissions to the NFIP and CRS. 

Auto-Generation of Letters. Forerunner’s AI-powered tools enhance workflows for permitting and inspections, reducing administrative burdens. By linking to federal, state, and local codes, Forerunner can intake an inspection record and automatically generate a letter that references the relevant sections of the municipality’s building codes, ensuring accuracy and compliance. Automating this process accelerates hazard compliance workflows and increases transparency, allowing communities to address issues more efficiently.

Here’s how it works: A user identifies a property that requires a notification letter to be sent and selects the type of letter they want to create - such as a code violation notification. The user selects the AI Action they want to take (e.g. “Violation Letter”), and AI will pull in the necessary data including property address, context, relevant code sections, and references, and generate a letter in the appropriate letterhead/format. The user reviews and sends the letter, which is automatically saved as a file within the user’s records. 

We’re just getting started: As disasters continue to intensify, the need for smart, accessible, and actionable hazard management tools will only grow. By centralizing data, automating compliance workflows, and enhancing disaster response capabilities, Forerunner enables communities to move beyond passive risk assessment and take active steps toward hazard resilience. With Forerunner, AI is no longer a tool for prediction – it is a catalyst for real, tangible change in how communities prepare for and respond to climate events.