ISS is committed to encouraging and increasing resilience, or the ability of a community, society, or system to withstand, adapt to, or recover from the effects of a disaster, throughout the Portland region. In this work we center communities, especially frontline and underserved communities, in resilience planning; hold space for recovery planning ahead of a disaster to ensure that we "build back better;" and maintain our vision of a just and sustainable region.
ISS's ongoing engagement with the City of Portland on disaster resilience dates from 2017 when we worked with the City to develop the Resilient Infrastructure Planning Exercise (RIPE). This initiative revealed the interdependencies between different infrastructure systems and developed priorities for getting infrastructure assets back online as soon as possible following a disaster. After RIPE, ISS continued to convene its offshoot the Disaster Resilience and Recovery Action Group (DRRAG), a group of City employees from eight infrastructure bureaus. This group is focused on creating a resilience strategy for Portland, furthering recovery planning, and improving coordination and collaboration across bureaus.
ISS has continued work with the City of Portland on a variety of resilience projects, including the City of Portland’s Natural Hazard Mitigation Action Plan (MAP) and the City’s Earthquake Response Framework. The MAP is a multi-hazard assessment that helped define and prioritize mitigation actions the City could take across infrastructure and social systems, and the City’s Earthquake Response Framework helped to define and enable the network of roles and responsibilities of agencies critical to emergency response following an earthquake. Most recently, ISS has supported the City’s development of an all-hazard evacuation plan which centers people with access and functional needs and other frontline communities.
In 2022, ISS expanded this work to include increasing the resilience of facilities handling extremely hazardous substances and other critical infrastructure lifelines. This included conducting an exploratory risk assessment for Multnomah County that defined potential earthquake-induced hazardous materials releases to support evacuation planning. Then ISS, joined by PSU researchers, provided technical assistance to the Oregon Department of Environmental (DEQ) Fuel Tank Seismic Stability Program (FTSS) in support of DEQ's rulemaking for Oregon 2022 Senate Bill 1567, which regulates large fuel storage facilities to reduce spill risks following a Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake event. Our partnership with the DEQ’s FTSS Program has continued into the rule implementation process, as we support a community of practice among engineers to advance the science of fuel tank seismic fragility and mitigation. As part of this work, PSU researchers are analyzing the geotechnical and structural information produced by facility engineering teams as they work to reach compliance with the FTSS regulations.
In fall 2024, ISS began collaborating with the PSU's Center for Public Service (CPS) on the Oregon Department of Human Services’ Resilience Hub program. This program will support the creation and operation of physical community support buildings across the State of Oregon. ISS, in support of CPS, is providing academic and research assistance through two tasks: creating a grantee capacity development program for underrepresented organizations and evaluating the progress and outcomes of the program.
Our current projects include:
- Supporting the ODEQ Fuel Tank Seismic Stability Program by utilizing PSU faculty and student expertise to support the plan review process and advance research outcomes.
- Working with PSU's Center for Public Service to support the State of Oregon Resilience Hub program
Our past projects include:
Contact Beth Gilden to learn more about ISS's work on disaster resilience