More than 35 program and planning officers, engineers, architects, nurses, police officers, and other technical and operational staff from various focal offices in Manila, including CDRRMO, DSWD, DEPED, BFP, and PNP, took part in the learning activity, which was designed to reintroduce the concept of resilience to the city of Manila by discussing risk elements and ways to improve resiliency through science, technology, leadership, and governance.
One approach, as suggested by Dr. Teresito C. Bacolcol, Director of DOST-PHIVOLCS, is to maximize the GeoRiskPH applications. According to his message, "GeoRiskPH makes hazards information available at your fingertips" and streamlines hazards and risk assessments, bringing Filipino communities one step closer to disaster resilience.
In light of this, the workshop covered lectures on the concept of disaster resilience by delving into the science underlying it, the institutional needs and roles required, and the frameworks and local policies on which it is based, in an effort to inform participants about what resilience is all about and what it takes to achieve it. A presentation on the GeoRisk Philippines Initiative, along with demonstrations and hands-on exercises using GeoMapperPH, GeoAnalyticsPH, and HazardHunterPH, were also conducted to familiarize them with the natural hazards to which the city of Manila is vulnerable, and to discuss alternative tools for mapping, developing evacuation plans, and assessing risks and coping capacity. Overall, these activities were carried out to ensure that participants understood how to efficiently collect and update baseline data, build exposure databases, and generate, visualize, and analyze hazard and risk assessments, as these advanced processes will greatly benefit their fieldwork, communities, and operations in addressing resilience challenges.
GeoRisk Philippines is the initial component of the Manila Resilient Local Government Unit Program. Part of this initiative is the development and implementation of a web-based geospatial risk dashboard where users can access an integrated database system of disaster and risk information for data-informed and resilience-driven local planning and programming. Through the Resilience 101 workshop that was held a week later, this technological innovation was made available to the barangay officials and SK representatives of Barangays 287-296, 654-658, Parola, Tenement, Happyland, Smokey Mountain, and Baseco Compound. The DOST-PHIVOLCS then continuously helps the city of Manila optimize its dashboards by sharing map layers and has plans to hold learning activities for said barangays to assist the city in being safer and more disaster-resilient.
