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Geohazard mapping to identify disaster prone areas
2010 LEGAZPI CITY — The government’s geohazard mapping project will be completed soon, with some 1,567 municipalities or 97 percent of the total target of 1,618 already assessed, according to a top regional official of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) office here.
Jocelin Marcus Fragada, the local DENR regional director, said that Environment Secretary Ramon J. P. Paje had already issued a directive to the Mines and Geosciences Bureau to finish the assessment of the remaining municipalities at the soonest possible time.

In Bicol, the geohazard mapping project had already been completed on June 2009 and the production of geohazard maps at the scale of 1:50,000 is already 92 percent completed; the remaining 8 percent is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

The Geohazard Mapping and Assessment Program of the DENR-MGB is an important component of the government’s disaster management and mitigation program in order to reduce the loss of lives and properties brought about by natural disaster.

It involves both the identification of areas of the country that are prone or susceptible to various geologic hazards like rain-induced landslides, floods, flash floods, storm surge, coastal erosion, sea level rise and other natural events, and information dissemination to increase public awareness. The output of the program is equally important for land use planning, land development and the emerging concern on climate change adaptation.

This comes at a time when frequent natural disasters have been causing untold damage to property and lives.

Fragada explained that the delay in the geohazard assessment of the remaining 51 municipalities was due to problem of accessibility and security.

These municipalities are located in Abra, Kalinga, and Apayao in the Cordillera Administrative Region and in Lanao del Sur and Basilan in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao.

“After completion, the generated maps will be digitized,” the Bicol DENR director said.

He said the process of digitizing the maps at the scale of 1:50,000 and 1:10,000 takes time to complete and will be based on the topographic maps produced by the National Mapping and Resources Information Authority. (MGB-DENR V/PIA/mal)

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