Oregon's Multi-Hazard Monitoring Network: Recent Growth and Future Directions

Date: 4/24/2019

Time: 02:30 PM

Room: Grand Crescent

The Oregon Hazards Lab uses science, technology, and education to detect, monitor, and mitigate multi-hazards. We are partners in the following projects: (1) the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network (PNSN), a cooperative operated by the University of Washington, the University of Oregon, and USGS; (2) ShakeAlert, the Earthquake Early Warning system developed by the USGS and its partner institutions; and (3) AlertWildfire, a consortium of three universities — The University of Nevada, Reno, University of California San Diego, and the University of Oregon — providing access to state-of-the-art Pan-Tilt-Zoom fire cameras and tools to help firefighters and first responders. Since 2014, the University of Oregon has worked closely with stakeholders, partner agencies, and policy makers to significantly grow a seismic monitoring network footprint. In 2015 Oregon contributed $1M to the buildout of PNSN and ShakeAlert. In 2018 Governor Kate Brown and State Resilience Officer Mike Harryman delivered a policy agenda entitled Resiliency 2025: Improving Our Readiness for the Cascadia Earthquake and Tsunami, wherein they focused on 6 key strategies. One strategy is that Oregon implement a statewide early warning system by 2023 that ties multi-hazard events — earthquakes, wildland fires, landslides, and flooding events — into one alerting and monitoring system. On the basis of her policy agenda, Governor Brown’s recommended budget includes $12M to implement an early warning system by 2023. Building on these successes, the Oregon Hazards Lab was created in 2018. The PNSN is about halfway complete with the ShakeAlert sensor network and O-HAZ has a nascent presence of AlertWildfire stations. Robust telemetry will mutually serve both programs, and serve as a platform for the future growth of OHAZ. We will discuss the genesis of Oregon's multi-hazard monitoring network, challenges faced, and collaborations made along the way, as well as future plans for expansion and growth.

Presenting Author: Douglas Toomey

Authors