The University of Oregon’s Emergency Management (UOEM) program is taking a unique service learning approach to building a “living” risk assessment and continuity of operations plans on campus. UOEM has partnered with the Geography Department’s InfoGraphics Laboratory to build, update, maintain and improve the Campus Hazard Identification Risk and Vulnerability Assessment (CHIRVA) which is based on the Campus GIS. The Campus GIS is a university-wide enterprise geodatabase that connects the campus community to a room-level GIS. This system provides UO staff and managers with the ability to track infrastructure and assets including utility systems, hazardous materials, capital construction projects, and individual data/voice jacks and networks throughout all of the buildings and grounds on campus. This data is being updated and improved upon on a room-by-room level through a pilot project to develop continuity of operations plans (COOP) for several units within the research enterprise. A team of UOEM staff and InfoGraphics staff along with graduate teaching fellows tour the pilot research facilities along with research staff to identify the facility’s critical functions as well as the rooms that support those critical functions. The end result of the pilot project is the development of unit-level COOPs, but also an advanced dataset that highlights the interdependencies on critical infrastructure and services not only within that particular unit, but eventually, across units. The project benefits emergency planning efforts by identifying campus exposure, vulnerability, and sensitivity; and can also help to improve daily operations by identifying opportunities for system and process efficiencies
