Welcome to the Oregon Hazards Lab
Using Science, Technology, and Community Engagement to Understand, Detect, and Mitigate Multi-Hazards within the Pacific Northwest
223+
Seismic Monitoring Stations
63+
Wildfire Detection Cameras
$22M+
Funding Since 2020
2018
Year OHAZ Was Founded
28
OHAZ Staff
8
Student Researchers
The Oregon Hazards Lab is a research lab within the University of Oregon's Department of Earth Sciences. We currently partner in these efforts:
Pacific Northwest Seismic Network
Along with the U.S. Geological Survey and the University of Washington, we monitor ground motion to better understand earthquake and volcano hazards and their impacts on communities in Oregon and Washington.
ShakeAlert® Earthquake Early Warning System
Since 2014, the Oregon Hazards Lab has been an instrumental partner in building and promoting the U.S. Geological Survey’s earthquake early warning system.
Wildfire Detection Cameras
With hundreds of mountaintop cameras installed throughout the western United States, this high-speed wildfire detection network provides firefighters and first responders a new way to spot and track wildfires.
Wildfire Smoke Sensors
As part of a partnership with the Department of Homeland Security, we deployed 30 smoke sensors across Western Oregon in 2023 and tested their effectiveness at detecting emerging wildfires.
Sage Continuum
We are building a continent-spanning network of smart sensors to improve the flow of information between scientists and the natural world.
Willamette Watershed Project
The Oregon Hazards Lab is developing resilient communications infrastructure for the Santiam, Sisters, and McKenzie River corridors that will support a natural disaster monitoring and alerting network.
News from the Oregon Hazards Lab
Interoperable Wildfire Detection Camera Network Expanding in Hawaii
Thanks to a new partnership with ALERTWest, Hawaiian Electric has begun deploying a network of wildfire cameras across the five islands served by the company. Camera footage will be visible at alertwest.live, alongside those operated by the Oregon Hazards Lab and other universities. This is the largest publicly available and interoperable wildfire detection system in the United States.
Oregon Hazards Lab Associate Director Wins Career Research Faculty Award
This award recognizes and celebrates faculty members’ substantial and impactful scholarly record on the University of Oregon campus. Leland O’Driscoll was honored for his instrumental role in the development and expansion of the Oregon Hazards Lab’s multi-hazard detection system.
University of Oregon Using Game-Changing Artificial Intelligence to Spot Wildfires
AI-enabled wildfire cameras have already proven to be an improvement in California. So far, a similar system called ALERTCalifornia has had a false positive rate below 0.001%. Correct AI alerts sometimes come in long before 911 calls are made by people about a fire, making this system a possible game-changer in Oregon.