Philippine Standard Time
 

PHIVOLCS conducted two online REDAS trainings for the central and Luzon field offices of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) from March to April 2021. The overall title of the training is “Capacity Enhancement of the Department of Social Welfare and Development on Hazard, Risk Assessment and Exposure Database Development through the use of the REDAS Software”. The two modules were entitled Basic REDAS and Seismic Hazard Assessment (Module 1) held on March 23-26, 2021 and Developing Relational Database in REDAS (Module 2) held on April 12-15, 2021.  The DSWD Central Offices’ participants were from the Disaster Response Management Bureau (DRMB) and the National Resource and Logistics Management Bureau (NRLMB).  The field offices came from Regions I, II, II, IVA, IVB and V.

Module 1 covered the topics on Installation and Basic Features of REDAS, lectures on Hydrometeorological and Earthquake Hazards, Map Reading, Philippine Seismicity and Earthquake Catalog, Seismic Hazard Assessment and familiarization with the Earthquake and Tsunami Alerting Module (ETAM) and Satellite Rainfall Monitor (SRM). On the other hand, Module 2 focused on developing relational database in REDAS, with topics on the Development of SQlite database, Usage of Quantum GIS, Plotting of Basemaps, Administrative Boundaries, and Multi-Hazard Maps in REDAS and Advanced SQLite Scripting. Additionally, in order to complete the provision of all the knowledge about the hazards that can be plotted in REDAS, lectures on the Volcanoes and Volcanic, Rain-Induced Landslide and Flood Hazards were also presented.   

The training was headed by DOST Undersecretary and PHIVOLCS officer-in-charge Dr. Renato U. Solidum, Jr., REDAS Program coordinator and Associate Scientist Dr. Maria Leonila P. Bautista, and REDAS Course advisers Dr. Bartolome C. Bautista, Ishmael C. Narag, and Engr. Angelito G. Lanuza. The speakers and facilitators for the two combined modules included Ma. Antonia V. Bornas, Dr. Rhommel N. Grutas, Johnlery P. Deximo, Anne Lorraine T. Delos Santos, Ian P. Javier, John Deladia, Jordana Marie L. Argamosa, Engr. Nikka Marie B. Sales, Engr. Noel C. Rosario, Jr., and Engr. Maria Teresa Llera. There were also guest speakers from the DOST-PAGASA, Sharon Juliet M. Arruejo and Bernard R. Punzalan II, and from the Mines and Geosciences Bureau, Liza Socorro J. Manzano and Julius Vincent P. Umali. The DRMB Director Clifford Y. Riveral gave opening and closing remarks.

 

Photo 1. Speakers, Facilitators and Course Advisers for the REDAS Module 1 Online Training for DSWD

Photo 1. Speakers, Facilitators and Course Advisers for the REDAS Module 1 Online Training for DSWD

 

For Module 1, there was a total of twenty-three (23) participants from the DSWD. During the Module 2, there were a total of 15 participants (13 from DSWD participants and two guest participants (one each from Mauban LGU and from Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas). REDAS version 2.9M, ETAM version 2.5.7, and SRM version 1.0.5 were provided to the participants. A total of 72 Basic, ETAM and SRM license keys were issued.

 

Photo 2. Participants and Speakers of the REDAS Module 2 Online Training for the DSWD.

 

Amidst some technical issues and challenges due to internet connection and some computer limitations, the participants expressed appreciation to learn new tools and skills for the improvement of their line of work.  In particular, being able to simulate earthquake hazards, plot hazard maps, and develop databases were some of the areas they intend to explore in the future.  Figure 1 shows an example of a participant’s output from where a map was produced from a simple database.  In this map, the participants were asked to digitize houses and categorize them according to family monthly income, a possible application that can be explored by DSWD that maybe useful in their operations. 

 

 

Figure 3. Sample output submitted by a DSWD participant showing the income per household in a chosen area.

 

Other than this, the participants have presented the possible applications of their learnings to their projects such as producing hazards maps and implementation of forecast-based financing. Following the training for Luzon field offices, the next modular trainings for DSWD are for Visayas and Mindanao field offices scheduled to be conducted in May 2021.  

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