Informatics includes the science of information, the practice of information processing, and the engineering of information systems. Informatics studies the structure, behavior, and interactions of natural and artificial systems that store, process and communicate information. It also develops its own conceptual and theoretical foundations. Since computers, individuals and organizations all process information, informatics has computational, cognitive and social aspects.  Used as a compound, in conjunction with the name of a discipline, as in disaster informatics, bioinformatics, etc., it denotes the specialization of informatics to the management and processing of data, information and knowledge in the named discipline, and the incorporation of informatic concepts and theories to enrich the other discipline.

The WDC Institute for Disaster Informatics is the applied research element of the Western Disaster Center.  The WDC Institute for Disaster Informatics has been established to manage the Western Disaster Center's applied research activities related to computers, communications, information, information systems and information technology as applied to all aspects of disaster and emergency management.

Major initiatives managed in the WDC Institute for Disaster Informatics include:

u The Strategic and Practical Use of Remotely Sensed Data in Emergency Management (SPURS-EM) project. The SPURS-EM project, completed in early 2006, was funded by NASA’s Earth Science Applications Program initiative and was directed by the Washington State Emergency Management Division.  This project was successfully completed in early 2006.

u HAZUS.org is an initiative of the Western Disaster Center that promotes the use of the FEMA developed HAZUS risk assessment and loss estimation software. This is accomplished through the support of HAZUS User Groups (HUGs) across the country and the operation of the “www.HAZUS.org” web site.  As part of the operations of HAZUS.org the WDC Institute for Disaster Informatics manages two HAZUS User Groups: the San Francisco Bay Area HAZUS User Group (BAHUG) and the Heartland HAZUS User Group (HeartlandHUG).  Operations of HAZUS.org aremanaged in conjunction with the WDC Institute for Disaster Informatics.

u The WDC Institute for Disaster Informatics is supporting development and operations of the Biological Defense Fusion Cell (BDFC) at Camp Parks in Dublin, California.  The BDFC is an operational element of the US Strategic Command Center for Combating Weapons of Mass Destruction (SCC WMD).  The BDFC is developing and demonstrating a capability for early warning and identification of BW attacks against operational military forces and military support elements and to support the rapid implementation of defensive and medical response measures. The BDFC enhances situational awareness by fusing open source near real time information and intelligence, both UNCLASSIFIED and CLASSIFIED, into timely actionable intelligence, in support of combat commander's force protection requirements.  The BDFC enables the ability to survive and operate when faced with biological threats from naturally outbreaks, laboratory accidents involving legitimate and illegitimate programs and intentional use by terrorist organizations and/or state actors.

u The Bay Area Critical Infrastructure Network (BACIN) is a WDC initiative to establish a public/private partnership and infrastructure to provide for the effective sharing of information and data necessary for the greater San Francisco Bay region's critical infrastructure to mitigate, prepare, respond to and recover from all hazards.