Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The 2026 Fifa Men’S World Cup Games: Implications For Cross-Border Travel In Cascadia, Border Policy Research Institute At Western Washington University

Border Policy Research Institute Publications

The FIFA Men’s World Cup Games are coming to North America in 2026. The games will be held in 16 cities throughout North America, with Seattle hosting 6 games and Vancouver hosting 7, and undoubtedly selling out their respective stadium capacities. With the games being held in both Seattle and Vancouver, a mere 145 miles away from each other, many fans will be crossing the border between B.C. and Washington to attend events in both places. The Games present a rare opportunity to innovate and advance the cross-border travel experience in our region and build on past successes such as …

Jay Treaty And Indigenous Student Mobility Across The Canada-U.S. Border: A Focus On The Cascadia Region, Michael O'Shea

Border Policy Research Institute Publications

This Border Brief describes the latest developments in the use of the Jay Treaty for international tuition waivers at U.S. and Canadian higher education institutions. It is based on research conducted through surveys, interviews, and the author’s previous publications to illustrate opportunities for universities and policy makers to support Indigenous student mobility across the Canada-U.S. border by recognizing the sovereignty and self-determination of Indigenous Nations.

Teleworking Across The Border: Insights From Cascadia, Andrzej Jakubowski

Border Policy Research Institute Publications

The COVID-19 Pandemic, supported by the rapid improvements in digital communication tools, has accelerated profound changes in how work is performed as millions worldwide started working remotely. Washington State and British Columbia were among the states/provinces with the highest percentage of people teleworking in the United States and Canada, respectively, mainly due to the developed industries of high technology, including the IT sector. However, as digital solutions allow for working from anywhere, they also boosted the rise of international virtual labor migration (cross-border telework), making labor mobility an even more diverse phenomenon. What remains an open question is whether telework …

Strengthening Collaboration Between Washington State And British Columbia, Ginny Broadhurst, Laurie D. Trautman

Border Policy Research Institute Publications

There are a variety of benefits that arise from collaboration across the Canada-US border. In some sectors, the value of collaboration is measurable. For example, travel or trade volumes can be equated with specific economic benefits. This is the case with tourism and supply chain networks. There are traceable benefits associated with cross-border business integration and the development of a shared ‘innovation ecosystem’. However, how does one measure the value of having good relations with neighbors? Or the benefits that result from developing more resilient environmental and economic conditions that are created by joint responses to shared natural disasters? The …

Liberalism And Its Trail, David Nessa

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

The United States has a history of utilizing liberal ideology as a justification for the appropriation of native land and resources for the enrichment of the United States. After becoming the pre-eminent superpower of the world post-WW2, the United States continued to justify intervention across the globe with liberal notions of what is good for society. David Harvey, who is a Marxist geographer, constructs the US imperial project as one that is tied up in the uneven trade of resources and thus the uneven development of these regions under the US sphere. After constructing an index measuring uneven trade and …

Gis Analyst, Tyler Balthrop

College of the Environment Internship Reports

Actalent allowed me to work as a paid internship for Wiser Imagery Services as a GIS Analyst. As a GIS analyst day to day my job can be completely different every single day or it could be the exact same thing day after day. It just depends on the deadlines, the client we are working for and the task at hand. Often the contracts that Wiser receives are with the federal government. Many of the positions do require security clearances but not all. However, that is not to say that the information does not hold value to potential harmful actors.

Wiser Imaging Services Internship, Tyler Balthrop

College of the Environment Internship Reports

Actalent allowed me to work as a paid internship for Wiser Imagery Services as a GIS Analyst. As a GIS analyst day to day my job can be completely different every single day or it could be the exact same thing day after day. It just depends on the deadlines, the client we are working for and the task at hand. Often the contracts that Wiser receives are with the federal government.

Washington Conservation Corps Crew Member, Peri Croan

College of the Environment Internship Reports

No abstract provided.

Dept Of Ecology - Gis Intern, Keiman Park-Egan

College of the Environment Internship Reports

This mapping was done in ArcGIS Desktop, an older predecessor to ArcGIS Pro. The first step of mapping a claim is to look it up in the Department of Ecology’s Water Resources Database. Each claim that we map has a digitized written application which tells us (more or less) of the person filing the claim, and the location of that claim. Afterwards, I would have to transcribe and map the location as best as I can in ArcGIS Desktop.

Is There A Future For Arrivecan At The Land Border?, Andrzej Jakubowski, Laurie D. Trautman

Border Policy Research Institute Publications

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic led to the introduction of a number of restrictions as governments around the world sought to implement border management tools that could protect public health. One such example was the ArriveCAN app, introduced by the Government of Canada in November 2020. This advanced data submission tool aimed to reduce the spread of COVID-19 by ensuring arrivals were vaccinated and by facilitating contact tracing. This Border Policy Brief provides a summary of the nearly two-year use of ArriveCAN as a border management tool during the pandemic. We consider its impact on passenger flows through the …

Wwu Spatial Institute Gis Internship, Ben Bruggen

College of the Environment Internship Reports

One of the key learning objectives I aimed to achieve with this internship was to further develop my data management skills. As the WWU Campus Web Map has been an ongoing project for quite some time, my involvement in this project required that I not only quickly familiarize myself with data and attributes, but also organize them in such a way that would ensure data quality and consistency for subsequent editing or for individuals who may work on the project in the future. Because the WWU Campus Web Map needed to contain up-to-date, campus-wide information, a significant portion of my …

Whatcom County Council Climate Change And Hazard Mitigation Planning Internship, Shannon Bacon

College of the Environment Internship Reports

This report is intended to act as a checkpoint for Whatcom County’s progress in climate resilience and hazard mitigation planning. Inspired by work in Rebekah Paci-Green’s Disaster Risk Reduction courses, I aim to speak to the value of climate resilience as a lens for hazard mitigation in Whatcom County specifically. I will identify Whatcom County’s goals concerning climate, climate change, and natural hazard mitigation, then highlight the County’s progress in these fields. Natural hazard planning is complex and highly important for protecting Whatcom County’s population and environment, and I hope this report may shed light on areas where we may …

Transpo Group Gis Internship, Casey Rothlisberger

College of the Environment Internship Reports

As GIS Intern, I offered support to the two GIS Analysts and the GIS Technical Supervisor, as well as project managers for specific tasks. Transpo’s projects are wide-ranging which allowed me to gain exposure on various projects and project types. All work was done on ArcGIS Pro, ArcMap, or ArcGIS Online.

Vignette 22: Sense Of Place, David J. Trimbach

Institute Publications

Sense of place refers to peoples’ bonds and meanings associated with place. Sense of place tends to include: place attachment (bond or connection to place); place dependence (reliance on place for need or goal achievement); place identity (identification with place); and place meaning (descriptions or imagery that define a place). Sense of place is subjective, yet patterned, providing researchers with the ability to assess shared connections, understandings, meanings, and the potential to predict behaviors or perceptions. Sense of place is recognized as integral to ecosystem health and recovery. Sense of place can be understood, if not harnessed to address ecosystem …

Where, Wheat, When?, Natalie Furness

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Understanding historical and modern agricultural practices and climates for cereal grains in Washington using climate change analysis in ArcGIS Pro.

Salish Sea Circulation Diagram, Aquila Flower

Salish Sea Maps

. Direction and relative magnitude (line width) of net water flow in the Salish Sea. Deep water flows represent primarily marine waters entering the Salish Sea from the Pacific Ocean. Intermediate depth and surface flows represent a mix of marine waters and freshwater from rivers in the Salish Sea. Actual circulation patterns are highly complex and seasonally variable, this diagram shows a simplified model of net exchanges. Labels indicate percent of the total water exchange that moves in and out of the Salish Sea through the Strait of Juan de Fuca in the south and through the northern boundary of …

Salish Sea Stream Discharge Diagram, Aquila Flower

Salish Sea Maps

Major rivers of the Salish Sea and average stream discharge (cubic meters per second). Data are based on annual averages from 1981 to 2010.

Figure 2.3 in the

Salish Sea Bioregion Reference Map, Aquila Flower

Salish Sea Maps

Map of the Salish Sea, major waterways, and surrounding watersheds, which when combined form a distinct transboundary bioregion.

Figure 1.1 in the

Salish Sea Population Density, Aquila Flower

Salish Sea Maps

Human population density in the Salish Sea. People per square kilometer mapped for each census block. Data from 2010 in the US and 2011 in Canada.

Figure 3.1 in the

Salish Sea Jurisdictions, Aquila Flower

Salish Sea Maps

US Counties, Canadian Regional Districts, and major cities in the Salish Sea Bioregion.

Figure 1.3 in the

Marine Basins, Aquila Flower

Salish Sea Maps

Subbasins and bathymetry of the Salish Sea. Basins are delineated based on water depth and circulation. Shallower areas associated with underwater sills separate many of the basins, creating distinct oceanography.

Figure 2.5 in the

Salish Sea Land Cover, Aquila Flower

Salish Sea Maps

Land cover in the Salish Sea bioregion. Land cover categories modeled using 30x30 meter resolution gridded satellite data from 2015.

Figure 3.2 in the

Salish Sea And Western North America Watersheds Contextual Landscape, Aquila Flower

Salish Sea Maps

No abstract provided.

Regional Cross-Border Collaboration Between The U.S. & Canada, Border Policy Research Institute

Border Policy Research Institute Publications

On October 24th, 2018, the BPRI hosted a one-day forum to assess the state of cross-border collaboration between British Columbia and Washington State. The forum brought together regional experts from government, academia, and private industry to discuss the successes, barriers, and opportunities for cross-border collaboration across three ‘sectors’: transportation/infrastructure, business/economics, and the environment (see sidebar). U.S. Congressman Rick Larsen provided opening remarks about the region and Canadian Coast Guard Regional Director Brian Wooton gave a keynote address on collaboration in the marine environment. This Border Policy Brief highlights some of the findings from the forum, which illustrate the need for …

Discrete-Event Processes In Disaster Recovery: A Conceptual Framework And Simulation Model Of Household Reconstruction In Pacific County Washington, Derek Huling

WWU Graduate School Collection

Techniques and frameworks to facilitate modeling, simulation, and visualization of disaster recovery concepts are tools to help researchers unpack the complex web of processes and events undertaken by households and other actors participating in recovery.

This research describes a conceptual framework of owner-occupied housing reconstruction consisting of various events, processes, resources, and their interactions with and among entities (representing owner-occupied households). For example, the process of household reconstruction involves potentially many events: building inspections, fulfillment of financial capital requests, contractual agreements with building contractors, etc.

Elements of this conceptual framework are applied to a discrete-event simulation (DES) to simulate the …

Cannabis In Cascadia: Impacts Of Legalization In The Region, Border Policy Research Institute

Border Policy Research Institute Publications

The policies regulating the use and sale of cannabis have historically been constructed differently in the United States and Canada, yet both countries had deemed recreational use to be illegal. Beginning in 2012, however, individual states in the U.S. began to legalize recreational cannabis, including Washington, Oregon, and most recently, California. In 2017, the Government of Canada passed similar legislation. If Canada’s legislation goes into effect in mid-2018, the West Coast of North America will become the only contiguous region where recreational consumption and sale of cannabis are permitted across multiple jurisdictions (see Map 1, next page). However, because cannabis …

Modernizing The Columbia River Treaty, Border Policy Research Institute

Border Policy Research Institute Publications

In February of 2017, Western Washington University (WWU) and Northwest Indian College (NWIC) hosted a two-day symposium titled, “The Changing Environment and the Columbia River Treaty.” The purpose of the symposium was to develop public awareness and inform treaty negotiators from the U.S. and diplomats from Canada on key issues to address when modernizing the Treaty. This event brought together tribal and First Nations leaders, representatives from government and private industry, non-governmental organizations and academics to discuss the modernization of the Columbia River Treaty (CRT).

Changes In Canadian Shopping Visits To Northwest Washington, 2013-2016, Border Policy Research Institute

Border Policy Research Institute Publications

In 2013, the BPRI launched a long-term study to analyze the behavior of Canadians crossing the border to shop in Northwest Washington by counting the percentage of Canadian license plates in specified shopping locations along the Interstate 5 corridor. Our “license plate survey” includes data collected over the course of 6 weeks (3 days per week), for a total of 18 survey days in 2013 and 2016. This Border Policy Brief is a comparative analysis of the data collected in 2013, when the loonie averaged $0.97 USD, and data collected in 2016 in the same locations, when the loonie averaged …

Three Centuries Of Synchronous Forest Defoliator Outbreaks In Western North America, Aquila Flower

Environmental Studies Faculty and Staff Publications

Insect outbreaks often occur synchronously across large spatial scales, but the long-term temporal stability of the phenomenon and the mechanisms behind it are not well understood. In this study, I use a widespread lepidopteran defoliator native to western North America--the western spruce budworm--as a case study to explore patterns of and potential causes for synchronous population fluctuations. Analyses of synchrony are typically severely limited by the short historical records available for many species. To overcome this limitation, I compiled multi-century dendrochronological reconstructions of western spruce budworm outbreaks from across much of the species' range. This allowed me to analyze synchrony …

Land-Based Freight Flows Between The Us And Its Nafta Neighbors, Border Policy Research Institute

Border Policy Research Institute Publications

This Brief provides an overview of the flow of goods between the U.S. and its two NAFTA neighbors, Canada and Mexico. For the U.S., the value and composition of freight that flows between its northern and southern borders varies significantly by port and region, and this variety inevitably has implications for border management policies and infrastructure investment needs. By providing an overview of the economic geography of the U.S.’s land-based trade with its NAFTA partners, this Brief seeks to inform decisions about border management and infrastructure investment, while also illustrating the value of cross-border trade to the U.S. economy.