EMAP History

In 1997, the National Emergency Management Association (NEMA) hosted a session, during the mid-year conference, on the need for standards and assessments within emergency management. The result from the combined efforts of national emergency management agencies and other stakeholder organizations was the Emergency Management Assessment Program, or EMAP.

EMAP builds on standards and assessment work by various organizations, adding requirements for documentation and verification that neither standards nor self-assessment alone can provide.

EMAP's backbone is agreed-upon national standards called, the Emergency Management Standard, developed with input from emergency managers and state and local government officials.

These standards consist of:

• Self-assessment and documentation;
• On-site assessment by a team of trained, independent assessors;
• Committee review and recommendation; and
• Accreditation decision by an independent commission.