PILOT PROJECTS

Supporting Emerging Research in the Cascadia CoPes Hub


The Cascadia CoPes Hub annually funds 3-5 pilot projects, each designed to engage communities and support emergent research activities. These year-long initiatives aim to address the information needs identified by tribes and other coastal communities. 

Additionally, the Hub will award Rapid Response Projects, which are aligned with the Hub’s science goals and community partner interests but may be out of phase with the annual pilot project proposal process due to the collection of perishable hazard and disaster data.

Projects are awarded in late July. Learn more about these project below.


2024 Pilot Projects

Congratulations to our new Pilot Project Awardees!

Collaborative Mural with Latinx Youth in Newport

A new mural project in Newport, Oregon, led by artist Emy Daniels, will engage Latinx youth to express their connection to their community and raise awareness of coastal hazards. The youth group will collaborate to create motifs, symbols, and imagery that reflect their thoughts and experiences, emphasizing their bond with the place they live. The mural will be produced using both traditional materials and digital techniques and the youth will create the art themselves. The group will choose a location significant to their community, with final approval sought from the city.

Dr. Felicia Olmeta Schult (PI, OR Sea Grant), Emma Gleeman (Co-PI, OSU Graduate student), Emy Daniels (Lead Artist, Hatfield Marine Science Center)

Building Inclusive Multihazard Evacuation Map Prototypes for Coastal Communities

This project aims to create inclusive evacuation maps for the diverse residents of coastal communities. While state and local agencies have developed earthquake/ tsunami evacuation maps for the Oregon coast, there is a gap in creating multi-hazard maps that are clear and accessible to everyone. Traditional approaches have focused on technical expert designs, often overlooking how the public will use these maps in emergencies. Using iterative map design and the “wise practices” for inclusive hazard awareness, this project offers a unique opportunity to leverage existing internal draft maps – developed by community partners – to co-develop multi-hazard evacuation map prototypes for coastal community members that are simultaneously inclusive of a diversity of lived experiences and utilize cutting-edge cartographic principles for emergency maps in both print and digital formats.

Dr. Jenna Tilt (PI, OSU), Dr. Jim Thatcher (co-PI, OSU), Michael Howard (co-PI, UO), Amanda Ferguson (co-PI, UO)

Flood Model Validation through Remote Sensing and Community Engagement

Coastal Washington is expected to see half a foot of sea level rise in the next 30 years, increasing the need for effective resilience and hazard mitigation strategies. Our team is using advanced modeling to study past and present flooding in Grays Harbor and Willapa Bay, aiming to predict future flood risks under changing climate conditions. To improve accuracy, this project will validate the existing model with flood data from NASA’s Dynamic Surface Water Extent product during storms. Partnering with local communities and organizations, the team will develop a tool to better visualize flood risks, helping with emergency preparedness and hazard mitigation.

Dr. Christie Hegermiller (PI, UW), Dr. Karthik Venkataramani (Postdoc, UW), Ryan Chiu (graduate student, UW), Dr. Sanpisa Sritrairat (WA Sea Grant)

2023 Pilot Projects

Building STEM Identities and Resilience: Community-Driven Earthquake Monitoring at the Quileute Tribal School

Led by Hub member and UW graduate student Madeleine Lucas, in collaboration with Quileute Tribal School, a team will establish a community-driven earthquake monitoring program. Team members and K-12 students will work together to design, install, and monitor a seismometer and present results. This project combines STEM education with geohazards science and tribal collaboration.

Dr. Harold Tobin (PI, UW), Madeleine Lucas (co-PI, graduate student, UW), Dr. Daniel Abramson (co-PI, UW), Dr. Carrie Garrison-Laney (co-PI, WA Sea Grant), Dr. Erin Wirth (Advisor, USGS), Dr. Audrey Dunham (Advisor, postdoc, UW), Anna Ledeczi (graduate student, UW), Julia Grossman (graduate student, UW), Mya Baker (CHARTER Fellow)
Community partners: Richard Parra, Alice Ryan, Verónica Elgueta

Visualizing dynamic processes and social-ecological systems to advance coastal resilience action

Led by Dr. Celina Balderas Guzmán, in collaboration with community partners from WECAN (Willapa Erosion Control Action Now), a team will translate the benefits of collaborative nature-based erosion management approaches into accessible graphics to support ongoing community-led coastal resilience efforts. These materials will be produced in various formats and will educate viewers and advance stakeholder-identified needs.

Dr. Celina Balderas Guzmán (PI, UW), Jackson Blalock (co, PI, Pacific Conservation District), Dr. Michelle Gostic (advisor, WA Dept. of Ecology), Dr. George Kaminsky (advisor, WA Dept. of Ecology), Dr. Meagan Wengrove (advisor, OSU)

Predicting Liquefaction-Induced Damage in Cascadia During M9 CSZ Earthquakes

Led by Dr. Brett Maurer, a team will use ground-motion simulations and artificial intelligence to predict the effects of soil liquefaction during earthquakes in the Cascadia Subduction Zone (CSZ). The data produced will be made available to other ongoing studies of landslides, tsunamis, and other earthquake-related events.

Dr. Brett Mauer (PI, UW), Dr. Marc Eberhard (co-PI, UW), Dr. Jeff Berman (co-PI, UW), Morgan Sanger (graduate student, UW)

Ecogeomorphic Model of Willapa Bay

Led by Hub member Dr. Kendall Valentine, a team will develop a numerical model to predict the impact of sea level rise on biological communities such as mud shrimp, seagrass, and oysters in Willapa Bay, Washington. The numerical model will be tested with a range of sea level rise scenarios, and results will be presented as an open-access model to aid future decision-making and aquaculture in Willapa Bay.

Dr. Kendall Valentine (PI, UW), Morgan Palmer (graduate student, UW)

2022 Pilot Projects

Collecting Critical Infrastructure Inventories in the Tokland to Tahollah Collaboratory

Led by Hub member Dr. Jeffrey Berman, a team will be developing an infrastructure inventory in the Washington Tokland to Taholah  collaboratory. This inventory is necessary to estimate the impacts of hazards (earthquakes, tsunamis, and landslides) on critical infrastructure. Community partners include the Westport Public Works Department and the Washington State Emergency Management Division.

Dr. Jeff Berman (PI, UW), Dr. Nicole Errett (co-PI, UW), Dr. Marc Eberhard (co-PI, UW), Dr. Dan Cox (co-PI, OSU), Dr. Andre Barbosa (co-PI, OSU), Dr. Joe Wartman (co-PI, UW), Addie Lederman (graduate student, UW), Kevin Goodrich (Public works director, town of Westport), Maximilian Dixon (Advisor, WA EMD)

Inclusive Community-based STEAM Identity-building in Coastal Hazards Research: Pilot Activities for Cascadia TEACH with the Ocosta School District, WA

Led by Hub member Dr. Daniel Abramson, this project will pilot a novel K-12 STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, mathematics) engagement project. 4 different activities will be integrated into an afterschool program at Ocosta Junior and Senior High School to 1) create a ‘tsunami-eye’ view of pedestrian evacuation simulation to inform community drills; 2) develop virtual reality visuals of future flooding from tsunamis, and sea level rise; 3) envisioning positive action through art, creative writing, and Minecraft and other game-worlds; and 4) building geonarratives with participatory community asset mapping.

Dr. Daniel Abramson (PI, UW), Dr. Loyce Adams (co-PI, UW), Dr. Ann Bostrom (co-PI, UW), Dr. Dan Cox (co-PI, OUS), Dr. Bob Freitag (co-PI, UW), Dr. Lisa Gaines (co-PI, OSU), Frank Gonzalez (co-PI, UW), Carrie Garrison-Laney (WA Sea Grant), Ashli Blow (WA Sea Grant), Kevin Goodrich (Public works director, town of Westport), Rachel Lambert (YMCA site coordinator for Ocosta School District), Ziyan Liu (graduate student, UW), Ian Miller (WA Sea Grant), Andrea Mirante (Grant director Ocosta School District), Heather Sweet (Superintendent of Ocosta School District), Elyssa Tappero (Tsunami program coordinator, WA EMD), Dr. Jenna Tilt (co-PI, OSU), Dr. Haizhong Wang (co-PI, OSU), Mykayla Yankey (site coordinator Ocosta School District)  

Enhance Community Disaster Preparedness and Resiliency through Physical and Virtual Drills

Led by Hub member Dr. Haizhong Wang, this project will promote evacuation preparedness through physical reality and virtual reality drills along the Oregon coast. The team will work with coastal households to test the effectiveness of emergency operations plans to help refine household and community evacuation plans. Community partners include the Emergency Volunteer Corps of Nehalem Bay.

Dr. Haizhong Wang (PI, OSU) and Dr. Michael Lindell (co-PI, UW)

Evaluating the Role of Short- and Long-term Channel Change on Nooksack River Flooding

The Nooksack watershed transports the most sediment among all Salish Sea watersheds. Led by Hub member Dr. Alex Horner-Devine, the team will investigate the role of changing morphology and sediment management in modeluating flood risk in the lower Nooksack basin, within the northernmost Cascadia CoPes Hub  collaboratory. Community partners include Whatcom County Public Works Department along with the Nooksack FLIP (Floodplain Integrated Planning) board made of local government, state, and federal agencies, Tribes, and agricultural representatives.

Dr. Alex Horner-Devine (PI, UW), Guillaume Mauger (co-PI, UW), Wuming Ni (postdoc, UW), Shelby Ahrendt (graduate student, UW), John Thompson (Senior Salmon Recovery Planner, Whatcom County)



Advancing Inclusive Community-Driven Hazards Training

Led by Hub member Dr. Felicia Olmeta Schult, the team will create a model for a more inclusive approach to co-develop hazard awareness and preparedness resources for Hispanic coastal community members within the Newport to Astoria collaboratory in Oregon. This includes facilitating the building of leadership capacity in Hispanic communities through training of “Hazard Embajadores” (hazard ambassadors) to disseminate hazard awareness and preparedness messages to their communities. Community partners include Consejo Hispano, FCH/SNAP-Ed Program with OSU extension, and HazAdapt.

Dr. Felicia Olmeta Schult (PI, OR Sea Grant), Josh Blockstein (co-PI, graduate student, OSU), Dr. Jenna Tilt (co-PI, OSU), Natasha Fox (advisor, postdoc, OSU), Dr. Ann Bostrom (co-PI, UW)



Rapid Response Award

2022 – Rapid Response to a Large Scale Tsunami Advisory: Understanding if, how, and why Cascadia Coastal Communities Receive Warnings and Change Behaviors

On January 15, 2022, a volcanic eruption off the coast of Tonga resulted in the issuance of a tsunami advisory for the entire eastern Pacific coast of North America. Led by Hub member Dr. Nicole Errett, the project aims to understand if, how, and why emergency management officials responded to the alert, including engaging in additional community-specific risk communications or activating emergency support functions, as well as their perceptions of their community’s consideration of risk in response to the warning. This research will advance our understanding of how communities receive and interpret tsunami warnings, and how future warnings and in-development alert systems and messages can be tailored to meet the unique needs of Cascadia Coastal communities. 

View the informational flyer on this research here