Project NOAH Integrated Scenario-based Assessment of Impacts and Hazards (ISAIAH) community engagement workshop in 2016 | |
Agency overview | |
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Formed | July 6, 2012 [1] |
Type | Disaster risk reduction program |
Jurisdiction | Philippines |
Headquarters | Quezon City, Philippines |
Agency executive |
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Parent Agency | Department of Science and Technology (2012–2017) University of the Philippines (2017–present) |
Website | noah noahcenter |
Project NOAH (Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazard) is the Philippines' primary disaster risk reduction and management program. Managed by the University of the Philippines, it was initially administered by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) from 2012 to 2017.
Project NOAH was a response to President Aquino's call for a better disaster prevention and mitigation system in the Philippines in the aftermath of the destructive Tropical Storm Sendong in December 2011. [2] [3] It was publicly launched by President Aquino, project head Mahar Lagmay, and other government officials in Marikina on July 6, 2012. [1] The program combines science and technology for disaster risk reduction and management. [4] It is also a responsive program that aims to provide a 6-hour lead-time warning to agencies involved in disaster prevention and mitigation. [5] The project also uses advanced technologies to enhance current geo-hazard vulnerability maps. It is also being developed with the help of the National Institute of Geological Sciences and the College of Engineering of the University of the Philippines; the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA); the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS); the Advanced Science and Technology Institute (ASTI), and the Science and Technology Information Institute (STII). [2] The project is now composed of twenty-one institutions from the local and private sectors, including media and telecommunication companies. [6]
The program involves eight major components: [2]
The program has been dubbed as the country's flagship disaster prevention and mitigation program. [3] [7] [8]
In January 2017 however, the Philippine government announced that Project NOAH would be shut down effective March 1, citing lack of funds; it was supposed to remain in operation only until February 28, 2017. [9] [10] On February 23, 2017, the University of the Philippines decided to adopt Project NOAH and continue its operations upon the termination of its administration by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) on February 28. [3] [11]
The last component completed before the end of its DOST-administered era was the Integrated Scenario-based Assessment of Impacts and Hazards (ISAIAH), which sought to translate hazards mapped by the project into municipal-level risk assessments that detail the level of exposure and vulnerability of a community. The component allowed citizens to contribute ground-level risk information through the use of OpenStreetMap. [12] The component resulted to completion of 16 provinces mapped with 2.2 million structures added to the database. [13]
On June 20, 2017, the University of the Philippines relaunched the UP Resilience Institute with Project NOAH, now called NOAH Center, as its flagship program. [14] [15]
Developer(s) | Department of Science and Technology |
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Initial release | 17 October 2012 |
Final release(s) | |
Operating system | Android, iOS |
Size | 1.8 MB (Android) [16] 17.6 MB (iOS) [17] |
Website | www |
The official mobile version of project NOAH was launched by then-DOST Secretary Mario Montejo and Smart Communications on 17 October 2012. The app was developed by Rolly Rulete together with Pablito Veroy and Jay Albano. The mobile application prototype was originally written in HTML5. [18] [19]
Emergency management is a science and a system charged with creating the framework within which communities reduce vulnerability to hazards and cope with disasters. Emergency management, despite its name, does not actually focus on the management of emergencies, Emergency management or Disaster management can be understood as minor events with limited impacts and are managed through the day-to-day functions of a community. Instead, emergency management focuses on the management of disasters, which are events that produce more impacts than a community can handle on its own. The management of disasters tends to require some combination of activity from individuals and households, organizations, local, and/or higher levels of government. Although many different terminologies exist globally, the activities of emergency management can be generally categorized into preparedness, response, mitigation, and recovery, although other terms such as disaster risk reduction and prevention are also common. The outcome of emergency management is to prevent disasters and where this is not possible, to reduce their harmful impacts.
Dr. Raymundo Santiago Punongbayan was the former director of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) from 1983 to 2002. Punongbayan became popular after handling two well-known calamities, the 1990 Luzon earthquake and the 1991 Pinatubo eruption. PHIVOLCS is the government agency in charge of conducting volcanic and earthquake monitoring in order to generate data that could be used to predict volcanic eruptions and earthquake occurrences.
Smart Communications Inc., commonly referred to as Smart, is a wholly owned wireless communications and digital services subsidiary of PLDT Inc., a telecommunications and digital services provider based in the Philippines. As of November 2023, it is currently the largest mobile network with 55.2 million subscribers.
The Department of Science and Technology, is the executive department of the Philippine government responsible for the coordination of science and technology-related projects in the Philippines and to formulate policies and projects in the fields of science and technology in support of national development.
Disaster risk reduction aims to make disasters less likely to happen. The approach, also called DRR or disaster risk management, also aims to make disasters less damaging when they do occur. DRR aims to make communities stronger and better prepared to handle disasters. In technical terms, it aims to make them more resilient or less vulnerable. When DRR is successful, it makes communities less the vulnerable because it mitigates the effects of disasters. This means DRR can make risky events fewer and less severe. Climate change can increase climate hazards. So development efforts often consider DRR and climate change adaptation together.
The Stephenson Disaster Management Institute at Louisiana State University is located in the Stephenson National Center for Security Research and Training at LSU.
In the fields of engineering and construction, resilience is the ability to absorb or avoid damage without suffering complete failure and is an objective of design, maintenance and restoration for buildings and infrastructure, as well as communities. A more comprehensive definition is that it is the ability to respond, absorb, and adapt to, as well as recover in a disruptive event. A resilient structure/system/community is expected to be able to resist to an extreme event with minimal damages and functionality disruptions during the event; after the event, it should be able to rapidly recovery its functionality similar to or even better than the pre-event level.
The space program of the Philippines is currently maintained by the Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA) together with various agencies under the Department of Science and Technology (DOST). The space program includes space research and development, and is funded through the National SPACE Development Program (NSDP) by the DOST and received an initial budget of ₱1 billion in 2020.
Diwata-1 also known as PHL-Microsat-1 was a Philippine microsatellite launched to the International Space Station (ISS) on March 23, 2016, and was deployed into orbit from the ISS on April 27, 2016. It was the first Philippine microsatellite and the first satellite built and designed by Filipinos. It was followed by Diwata-2, launched in 2018.
Alfredo Mahar Francisco Amante Lagmay is a Filipino geologist. He is executive director of Project NOAH and a professor at the National Institute of Geological Sciences of the University of the Philippines Diliman.
The Philippine Earth Data Resource and Observation Center, also known as the PEDRO Center is an organization tasked in operating satellite ground stations.
Diwata-2 or Diwata-2B is a Philippine microsatellite launched on October 29, 2018. It is the first satellite launched under the STAMINA4Space program.
The Philippine Scientific Earth Observation Microsatellite (PHL-Microsat) was a satellite program carried by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) of the Philippines in cooperation with the Tohoku and Hokkaido Universities of Japan.
The Philippine Genome Center (PGC) is a multi-disciplinary research facility in Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines which specializes in genomics.
Climate change is having serious impacts in the Philippines such as increased frequency and severity of natural disasters, sea level rise, extreme rainfall, resource shortages, and environmental degradation. All of these impacts together have greatly affected the Philippines' agriculture, water, infrastructure, human health, and coastal ecosystems and they are projected to continue having devastating damages to the economy and society of the Philippines.
Light Rail Manila Corporation (LRMC) is a rail service company based in Pasay, Metro Manila, Philippines. It is a consortium of companies engaged in the operation and maintenance of the Manila Light Rail Transit System Line 1 since September 2015. The consortium is composed of Metro Pacific Investments Corporation and Sumitomo Corporation's Metro Pacific Light Rail Corp. (MPLRC); AC Infrastructure Holdings Corp. ; and Macquarie Infrastructure Holdings (Philippines) Pte. Ltd.
The Multispectral Unit for Land Assessment (MULA) is a planned Filipino satellite. Upon completion it will become the largest Filipino-made satellite.
Renato Umali Solidum Jr. is a Filipino geologist and government official. Solidum has been Secretary of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) since August 13, 2022. Before his appointment as Secretary, Solidum served as an Undersecretary for Disaster Risk Reduction-Climate Change Adaptation at DOST and as the Officer-in-Charge of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS).
Climate change adaptation in the Philippines is being incorporated into development plans and policies that specifically target national and local climate vulnerabilities. As a developing country and an archipelago, the Philippines is particularly vulnerable to a variety of climatic threats like intensifying tropical cyclones, drastic changes in rainfall patterns, rising sea levels, and rising temperatures. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the Philippines is one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world. In 2021, the Global Climate Risk Index ranked the Philippines fourth of the ten countries most affected between the years 2000 and 2019. The need for managing climate risks through climate change adaptation has become increasingly evident. Adaptation can reduce, moderate or avoid current and expected climate effects or take advantage of beneficial climatic events. Developing greater resilience to various threats can be a major goal of comprehensive disaster risk reduction strategy. The Philippines is therefore working on a number of national and local adaptation and disaster risk reduction strategies to build the country's climate resilience.