# ASCE Amplify / ASCE Hazard Tool

> ASCE Amplify is the digital platform of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). Its developer
> surface is the ASCE Hazard Tool API — a read-only HTTP API that returns site-specific environmental
> design hazard values (wind, tornado, ice, rain, flood, seismic, snow, tsunami) for a latitude and
> longitude in the United States and its territories, per the ASCE/SEI 7 and ASCE/SEI 41 standards.
> ASCE also operates a public ArcGIS Server at gis.asce.org that publishes the hazard map, image and
> geoprocessing services behind the tool, over both Esri GeoServices REST and SOAP/WSDL.

Generated by the API Evangelist enrichment pipeline on 2026-09-07 from the artifacts in this repository.
Method: generated. ASCE serves no llms.txt of its own (probed 2026-09-07: /llms.txt returned 404 on
www.asce.org, amplify.asce.org and api-hazard.asce.org).

## Hazard Loads API

- [OpenAPI 3.0.3 (harvested verbatim)](openapi/asce-amplify-hazard-loads-openapi.yml): 8 GET operations. Served by ASCE at https://api-hazard.asce.org/docs/assets/openapi.yml
- [API documentation](https://www.asce.org/publications-and-news/asce-hazard-tool/api): audience, API key, error codes, sample response
- [Interactive reference (Swagger UI)](https://api-hazard.asce.org/docs): a site for constructing and testing API calls
- [JSON field documentation (PDF)](https://www.asce.org/-/media/asce-images-and-files/publications-and-news/hazard-tool/hazard-tool-api-documentation.pdf): every response field, per hazard, per standard edition
- [About the Hazard Tool](https://www.asce.org/publications-and-news/asce-hazard-tool/about): data sources for each hazard

Base URL: https://api-hazard.asce.org/v1

Operations (all GET, all keyed on lat + lon):
- /flood — FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer zone, static BFE, vertical datum
- /ice — ASCE 7 equivalent radial ice thickness, concurrent temperature and gust (standardsVersion 7-10 | 7-16 | 7-22)
- /rain — NOAA Atlas 14 precipitation frequency table
- /seismic — USGS seismic design parameters (standardsVersion 7-10 | 7-16 | 7-22 | 41-17 | 41-23, siteClass required)
- /snow — ASCE 7 ground snow load (standardsVersion, riskLevel required)
- /tornado — ASCE 7-22 tornado wind speeds by effective plan area and MRI (Risk Category III/IV only)
- /tsunami — whether the site is inside the mapped tsunami design zone
- /wind — ASCE 7 3-second gust design wind speeds and hurricane/special wind region flags

## Calling it

- Authentication: API key in the `token` query parameter. Keys are issued per company at sign-up through the ASCE Hazard Tool Account Manager. There is no header alternative, and the key is echoed back in requestInfo.url on every successful response.
- Rate limit: 1,000 requests per month by default. Consumption is reported in the body as requestInfo.currentMonthlyRequestNumber ("69/1000"). There are no rate-limit response headers. Exhaustion returns HTTP 500 "over query limit", not 429.
- Errors: bare JSON {"code": <int>, "message": "<string>"} — not RFC 9457. Documented codes: 400 invalid input, 500 missing/invalid key, 500 over query limit. A live anonymous call returns 401 {"code":401,"message":"Token required"}.
- The API is entirely read-only. There is no write surface, so idempotency, reversibility and dry-run are not applicable.
- Response shape varies by standard edition for the same hazard. Branch on standardsVersion.
- Sentinels that are not data: STATIC_BFE -9999 (BFE not applicable), snow "Case Study" (value 0 means N/A, not a zero load), tornado isRiskLevelApplicable (Risk Category I/II returns nothing).

## Pricing and access

- [Request a quote](https://www.asce.org/publications-and-news/asce-hazard-tool/request-a-quote) — ASCE publishes no price list or plan table; access and higher usage limits are quote-based.
- [Terms](https://www.asce.org/publications-and-news/asce-hazard-tool/terms)
- [Report an issue](https://www.asce.org/publications-and-news/asce-hazard-tool/report-an-issue)
- API key questions: amplify@asce.org

## GIS surface

- [ArcGIS REST services directory](https://gis.asce.org/arcgis/rest/services?f=json) — anonymous, ArcGIS Server 11.5; folders ASCE, ASCE722, Utilities
- [Services catalog WSDL](wsdl/asce-amplify-arcgis-services-catalog.wsdl) and [ASCE_Loading MapServer WSDL](wsdl/asce-amplify-arcgis-asce-loading-mapserver.wsdl) — harvested verbatim
- The HTML Services Directory is disabled (403); use f=json. OGC WMS is not enabled on this deployment.

## Repository artifacts

- [Authentication](authentication/asce-amplify-authentication.yml)
- [Conventions, idempotency and reversibility](conventions/asce-amplify-conventions.yml)
- [Error catalog](errors/asce-amplify-problem-types.yml)
- [Rate limits](rate-limits/asce-amplify-rate-limits.yml)
- [Plans and pricing](plans/asce-amplify-plans-pricing.yml)
- [Lifecycle and status](lifecycle/asce-amplify-lifecycle.yml)
- [Conformance and domain standards](conformance/asce-amplify-conformance.yml)
- [Data model](data-model/asce-amplify-data-model.yml)
- [Candidate MCP tool surface](mcp/asce-amplify-mcp.yml) — derived; ASCE ships no MCP server
- [Agent skills](skills/_index.yml)
- [Well-known probe](well-known/asce-amplify-well-known.yml) — no /.well-known document is served on any ASCE host

## Optional

- [Status page](https://status.asce.org/) — Atlassian Statuspage; components ASCE, Website, Personify
- [ASCE 7 standard](https://www.asce.org/publications-and-news/asce-7)
- [ASCE AMPLIFY](https://amplify.asce.org/) — the standards platform; login-gated