The two resource persons for the IEC (From left: Mr. Oscar Victor Lizardo and Ms. Rachel Habana)
Accurate information about environmental hazards, such as impending floods and methane emissions, is now accessible with just a few clicks of the fingertip. This is made possible through the Department of Science and Technology's (DOST) "Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards", popularly known as Project NOAH, and the Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development's (PCIEERD) initiated website "iesmanila.com/lgis".
These two technologies were bannered in the last leg of PCIEERD's Information Education and Communication (IEC) Campaign in line with the celebration of the DOST Regional Cluster Science and Technology Fair (RSTF) last November 15,2014 at SMX Convention Center, SM Lanang, Davao City.
With the theme anchored on "Addressing Environmental Hazards", the topics presented were focused on advocating disaster preparedness and promoting environment sustainability.
The event was graced by Director Alfonso P. Alamban, Regional Director of DOST Region X, who emphasized that the information from the two selected topics are vital in Mindanao because of the recent calamities that wrought havoc in their area. Further, he stated that having knowledge in new technologies about addressing environmental hazards is necessary to prevent more calamity-related casualties from occurring.
Project NOAH was discussed by Mr. Oscar Victor V. Lizardo, Chief Science Research Specialist for Web GIS under DOST-Project NOAH. He stated that the project is DOST's take to creating a program for disaster prevention and mitigation with the task to provide high-resolution flood hazard maps and deliver timely and accurate data against impending floods. Aside from accessing the information from their website, Filipinos can now avail of the free NOAH application for their mobile phones.
To make the application appealing, Mr. Lizardo specified how they package information about project NOAH by utilizing the social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, to reach out to more audience and laymanize its contents. He stated that their team, headed by Executive Director Dr. Mahar A. Lagmay, thought of new ways to entice the public to download the Project NOAH app by using witty tweets in Twitter and tapping celebrities, such as Anne Curtis and Kim Atienza, as the project's ambassadors. Through these, they hope that more people will download the free app to give accurate data and critical weather updates to Filipinos nationwide especially during the occurrence of typhoons.
Afterwards, Ms. Rachel R. Habana, Senior Science Research Specialist from DOST-PCIEERD, presented the results of the project entitled "Capacity Building on Methane Emissions Recovery and Utilization from Landfills in the Philippines". The Global Methane Initiative (GMI) funded the project with PCIEERD as a co-funding Council. As a result, the project was able to generate an action plan on municipal solid waste management and landfill Geographical Information System (GIS) in the Philippines.
Ms. Habana introduced the website "iesmanila.com/lgis" generated by DOST-PCIEERD, through the services of Rio Environmental Management and Development Services to make information about the aforementioned project accessible for use by the public. The website contains technical information relevant to the site preliminary assessment for potential landfill gas generation and recovery projects. These information were acquired from the Local Government Units (LGUs) or private companies managing the disposal facility. In particular, it contains pictures, maps, gas recovery projects and other information about landfill facilities in the country.
Ms. Habana added that as commitment to the GMI partnership, a National Action Plan for Municipal Solid Waste Methane Emission Reduction wad drafted as part of the project implementation. Inputs from various stakeholders during the regional consultative fora and gaps to determine appropriate strategies in addressing particular concern from different stakeholders were also gathered and discussed. She added that the National Action Plan for Municipal Solid Waste Methane Emission Reduction will be made available to the website.
The PCIEERD initiated IECs hope to support Science and Technology research initiatives in the country though information dissemination. Advocating utilization of technologies generated towards disaster preparedness and environment sustainability, such as the two mentioned above, are the Council's means to promote awareness and encourage proactive measures on addressing environment related concerns. (Edgilyn R. Alcasid)
