May 2, 2024- Cascadia CoPes Hub / RCN Monthly Seminar Series

Islanding: Connecting after Cascadia

 Speakers: Dan Cox (OSU), Marc Eberhard (UW), Amina Meselhe (OSU), Joe Louis (OSU)

Abstract: A rupture of the Cascadia Subduction Zone will cause significant damage to built infrastructure systems, including the interconnected transportation, communication, power, health, and economic networks on which coastal communities rely. The short- and long-term impacts on each community will vary depending on the post-event functionality of these networks but also on the extent to which each community relies on these networks.  Coastal communities are particularly concerned with potential “islanding,” in which communities become cut off from the rest of the state and from each other. This seminar will discuss how the CoPes research and will (1) deepen our understanding of how earthquakes affect the functionality of transportation networks, (2) how post-event connectivity can be modeled and quantified at multiple scales, (3) explore how short-term response and long-term recovery can be modeled, and (4) expand the range of hazards and social impacts that we will consider.