[talk-ph] Fwd: DENR Press Release - May 24, 2012 - Geohazard maps now accessible in four websites

maning sambale emmanuel.sambale at gmail.com
Thu May 24 07:49:56 BST 2012


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: rem zamora <pompyang at gmail.com>
To: waypointsdotph at yahoogroups.com, osm-ph <talk-ph at openstreetmap.org>
Cc:
Date: Thu, 24 May 2012 14:24:25 +0800
Subject: Fwd: DENR Press Release - May 24, 2012 - Geohazard maps now
accessible in four websites


24 May 2012

* *

*Geohazard maps now accessible in four websites*



            Geohazard maps are now accessible and downloadable from four
government websites, including that of a non-government organization, it
was announced by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources
(DENR).



The government websites hosting the interactive geohazard maps include that
of the DENR (www.denr.gov.ph), Mines and Geosciences Bureau (www.mgb.gov.ph),
Philippine Information Agency (www.pia.gov.ph) and that of Environmental
Science for Social Change (www.essc.org.ph).



DENR Secretary Ramon J. P. Paje said the move is to broaden public access
to the geohazard maps, which has become an important tool in disaster risk
reduction and management.



Paje said that with the identification of the Philippines as among those
highly vulnerable to the impact of climate change, Filipinos should brace
for typhoons with greater intensity in terms of wind speed and rainfall
that could trigger flooding and landslides.



             “We don’t want to be alarmist, but as the saying goes, ‘*mas
maigi na ang maagap*’. With climate change, we have to accept the fact that
some of the typhoons that would be visiting us would have greater intensity
that could trigger flooding and landslides,” Paje explained.



            He urged the public to be proactive in taking precautionary
measures to minimize, if not prevent, any adverse impact of calamities not
only in one’s family and community but on the country as a whole.



            As part of the government’s  risk reduction and management
program, the DENR has been negotiating with various entities and
organizations for the hosting of the geohazard maps his agency has
generated to broaden public access.



The latest of such successful negotiations, said Paje, was with the
Environmental Science for Social Change (ESSC), a non-profit research
organization located at the Ateneo de Manila University in Quezon City,
which has already put up an online facility for the geohazard maps in its
website pursuant to a memorandum of agreement recently entered into between
ESSC Executive Director Sylvia SM Miclat and Mines and Geosciences Bureau
(MGB) Director Leo Jasareno.



Under the agreement, the DENR through the MGB would provide ESSC with
digital copies in their best resolution of the 700 geohazard maps at a
scale 1:50,000, and of the updated ones at scale of 1:10,000 once these
become available by 2014.



“Make time to visit their website, www.essc.org.ph.  The geohazard maps are
not only interactive but are also downloadable,” Paje said.

Meanwhile, MGB Director Jasareno said that the densification of the
geohazard maps at a scale of 1:10,000 is now in full swing, and is expected
to completed in 2014.



Alongside, the MGB is also conducting coastal and marine geohazard survey
to determine the approximate rates of shoreline changes through time due to
coastal erosion or accretion, and to identify potential marine and coastal
geohazards and the appropriate measures to prevent massive impact.



Jasareno said the agency has already completed the nationwide geohazard
assessment and mapping program at a scale of 1:50,000 two years ago,
covering a total of 1,634 cities and municipalities.



He also said that all LGUs have already furnished copies of their
respective geohazard maps and have been properly oriented on the use of the
maps.


-- 
Rem Zamora
Photojournalist
0917-592-74-33--

cheers,
maning
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"Freedom is still the most radical idea of all" -N.Branden
wiki: http://esambale.wikispaces.com/
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