Cascadia Hazards Institute

Cascadia Hazards Institute objectives are: to:

• to advance scientific understanding of fundamental processes associated with natural hazards
• educate the next generation of scientists, community leaders, and all citizens in hazards-related science
• inform the development of policies for hazard response and risk reduction in the Pacific Northwest

CWU created the Cascadia Hazards Institute (CHI) to establish CWU as the only hazards research and mitigation center in the Pacific Northwest. By leveraging the real-time, circum-Pacific warning capabilities of PANGA developed over the last decade, CHI broadens hazards research and mitigation to all schools and departments at CWU, from the school of business to resource management to sociology to elementary education. CHI also engages in collaborative projects as with the Cascadia Earthscope Earthquake and Tsunami Education Program (CEETEP).

Cascadia hazards are diverse, and range from magnitude-9 earthquakes and volcanoes to climate change, groundwater exhaustion, pollution and many others. Because effective mitigation of natural hazards stems directly from scientific understanding the processes that drive them, CHI's purview is both in core science and in designing mitigation in terms of their societal, economic and sociological impact.