Members
Regular Members
Bonneville Power Administration
Northwest Natural Gas
Oregon Department of Transportation
Port of Portland
Portland General Electric
Associate Members
Eugene Water and Electric Board
Portland Water Bureau
Tualatin Valley Water District
Collaborator
Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center
Background
Early methods to mitigate seismic risks in Oregon were developed for short-duration earthquakes typical of those experienced in California. The inevitable Cascadia subduction zone earthquakes are expected to last much longer, similar to those seen in Chile and Japan in recent years. Oregon’s infrastructure was built long before the state’s seismic risk was fully understood. When a major earthquake occurs, aging infrastructure will pose major challenges to all lifeline providers, including transportation departments, electric and gas utilities, water and wastewater utilities, fuel providers, and ports. The state will suffer a debilitating loss of mobility due to the shutdown of major highways. Thousands of Oregonians will lose their lives. Estimates of what it will take to begin mitigating the seismic risk reach into the billions of dollars. Unfortunately, current economic conditions and competing priorities are such that most lifeline providers do not have the resources to address the issues. In line with its mission as a land grant institution, Oregon State University initiated the Cascadia Lifelines Program to help organizations come together and pool limited resources. The program will enable providers to capitalize on Oregon State’s earthquake research expertise and find solutions that will improve critical infrastructure performance so it can withstand major earthquake events.Interview with Scott Ashford
Oregon State Resilience Research
"The expected earthquake on the Cascadia subduction zone is going to be the single largest
natural disaster ever to face the United States."
Scott A. Ashford, Kearney Professor and Dean, College of Engineering
Products and Tools
OHELP
The Oregon Hazard Explorer for Lifelines Program is a web-GIS tool to aid engineers in acquiring most recent available seismic data and assessing earthquake hazards in Oregon. The simple and powerful user interface requires only internet access. Data can be queried by address or latitude and longitude. Access OHELPGOSEP
The Georeferenced Oregon Soil Engineering Properties Database is a web-GIS tool to aid engineers in exploring geotechnical information collected across the state of Oregon. The website contains previous boreholes, in situ and laboratory tests of Oregon soils in a powerful 3D web-based interface, which does not require the user to have extensive knowledge of GIS. Access GOSEPFragility Function Viewer
The CLiP Fragility Function Viewer is a user-friendly,web-based user interface for the Cascadia Lifelines Program Fragility Function Database. The application allows one to select, visualize, compare, and export fragility functions currently in the CLiP Lifelines Fragility Function Database. Access the Fragility Function ViewerMisc Analysis Tools
Additional tools have been developed to analyze hazards along lifelines including an ArcGIS script to assess hazards along linear or point-based features, an interactive matlab viewer to assess hazards along lifelines, and a seismic slope stability app. Access these Tools
Webinars
The webinar series is packed with a lot of valuable information related to resilience. Please see the current list of webinars and register for upcoming webinars by following the link below. You can also view recordings of prior webinars at these links. Access the 2021-2022 Webinar Series Access the 2020-2021 Webinar Series Access the 2019-2020 Webinar Series
"Through the Cascadia Lifelines Program and the commitment of our
partners, we can build community resilience, and get our lifelines back
up and running. Those lifelines are the key to saving lives, minimizing
damage, and aiding in recovery of the region."
Scott A. Ashford, Kearney Professor and Dean, College of Engineering
Research
Leading researchers in the College of Engineering are collaborating across multiple disciplines to address soil liquefaction, which can lead to failure of roads, bridges, buildings, and other critical structures, landslide prediction and mitigation, cost-effective improvements to existing infrastructure, evacuation routes, and tools to plan for hazards and anticipate risks. In conjunction with bright graduate students, undergraduate students, and post-doctoral scholars, OSU faculty conduct CLiP research projects. The FY22 projects include:
- Finding Optimal Access Routes Based on Multi-Infrastructure Failures. PI: Dr. Joe Louis
- Gap analysis for wildfire resilient communities in the Western US. PI: Dr. Erica Fischer
- Development of WebGIS-based tool for probabilistic damage and restoration modeling of lifeline systems. PIs: Dr. Jaehoon Jung and Dr. Mohammad Shafiq Alam
- Gosep is ready: now let's use it. PIs: Dr. Matt Evans and Dr. Ben Leshchinsky
- Site Response and Cyclic Modeling Calibrations for Oregon Silt Soils. PIs: Dr. Armin Stuedlein and Dr. Matt Evans
Major research programs at OSU in CCE that participate in CLiP and resilience research include:
CLiP provided seed funding for a summer undergraduate research program (SURF), which paved the way to bring a National Science Foundation (NSF) sponsored Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program to OSU called Engineers Bounce Back. Read more about the Engineers Bounce Back Undergraduate Research Program.
Facilities
Oregon State University’s College of Engineering houses the largest near-shore experimental facility at an academic institution in the nation — the O.H. Hinsdale Wave Research Laboratory. In addition, the research facilities and laboratories available in the School of Civil and Construction Engineering are the type found at top engineering schools around the nation, and some of them are unique to only a select number of institutions around the country.
Major laboratories include:
Resources
Cascadia Resilience Short Course
This course provided engineering practitioners and related professionals with an in-depth understanding of hazards posed by the Cascadia Subduction Zone and identify effective solution technologies to build more resilient communities. Recordings and Materials are available to CLiP members. July 14, 2016Kearney Hall, Oregon State University
CLiP Symposium
CLiP is organizing a symposium in 2022 when conditions permit to connect lifeline providers across the state of Oregon and beyond.
ASCE Lifelines Conference
CLiP members will be presenting in several sessions\panel discussions organized by Yumei Wang at the ASCE Lifelines Conference @ UCLA in February 1-3, 2022. CLiP members will discuss challenges with the Cascadia Subduction Zone as well as sstrategies they are employing to mitigate the hazard and provide more resilient infrastructure
