GOVPH

Less than two years after its inauguration in December 2011, the Department of Science and Technology’s (DOST) Disaster Risk and Exposure Assessment for Mitigation (DREAM) program has finished acquiring floodplain data for 17 of the 18 critical river systems through a LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) equipment, a state-of-the-art technology used to generate high-resolution, up-to-date, and three-dimensional (3D) flood hazard maps.

This positive development, reported earlier by DOST Sec. Mario G. Montejo,  is among the information outlined in a progress report that DREAM, led by engineers from University of  the Philippines (UP) Diliman, is set to deliver in a stakeholders’ meeting at the UP-Diliman National Engineering Center on October 17, 2013.

A pioneer and big-ticket program under DOST’s Project NOAH (Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards), DREAM is tasked to generate high-resolution, detailed, and up-to-date flood models for the country’s 18 river systems in order to create a country-wide integrated flood early warning system.

In particular, DREAM has so far completed LiDAR-based 3D flood hazard maps for Cagayan de Oro and Compostela Valley—areas that were greatly affected by typhoons Sendong and Pablo, respectively—as well as flood plains of  Cagayan de Oro, Iponan, Mandulog, Iligan, Pampanga, Davao Oriental, Compostela Valley, and Marikina. These flood hazard maps have thorough simulations, are ultra-detailed, and are the first of their kind in the country.

DREAM Program Leader Dr. Enrico Paringit will present the initial flood hazard outputs and handover copies to local government units to aid them in their disaster mitigation and risk reduction planning.

DREAM started its LiDAR scanning of the country's river systems in November last year. Its flood models and outputs will get data from Project NOAH’s more than 700 new weather sensors now strategically installed across the archipelago to come up with an integrated flood early warning system. The rest of the flood models are set to be completed by July 2014.

Commissioned last year by President Benigno S. Aquino, Project NOAH was launched to create a country-wide integrated flood early warning system to mitigate natural hazards using some of the most advanced technologies available today. (With reports from Nicolle Timoteo, UP DREAM) S&T Media Service, DOST-STII

Written by: Suzette Dalumpines & George Robert Valencia III   
Thursday, 17 October 2013 02:27