AdZU witness Soft Launch of a State-of-the-Art Disaster Risk Assessment Project
Zamboanga City – About 20 typhoons visit the Philippines yearly. While Zamboanga Peninsula in the past has been spared the large-scale natural disasters that have hit other parts of the country, there have been an increase in instances of flooding and storm surges in the city.
A project launched by Ateneo de Zamboanga University on June 25, 2014 seeks to address this growing concern. In partnership with University of the Philippines Training Center for Applied Geodesy and Photogrammetry (UP-TCAGP) at UP Diliman, this program will not only be beneficial to the Ateneo Community, but to the entirety of the Zamboanga Peninsula.
DREAM LiDAR is a science and technology project that stands for Disaster Risk Exposure for Mitigation Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR).
It is a nationwide priority project funded by the Department of Science and Technology for the generation of three-dimensional (3D) maps that will be used by the national government for better data risk management all throughout the Philippines.
The project entails the deployment of low-flying planes equipped with Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) system to gather data for 3D map generation which will be the basis in creating flood models. Other than mitigating disasters, this new technology can also be used for post disaster damage assessments. The technology used in the project has received international recognition.
The ADZU DREAM LiDAR project consist of two components: LiDAR 1 which will gather data to create Digital Elevation Models (DEM) maps to determine areas prone to flooding and other disasters and LiDAR 2 which will gather data on on both terrestrial and aquatic resources such as high value crops that will be impacted in the case of disasters.
During the soft opening of the program held in the Audio Visual Room of Ateneo, Project Leader Mario Rodriguez delivered a brief introduction regarding the said development, followed by an audio visual presentation of the multi-million peso disaster mitigation scheme which is nationwide in scope. Rodriguez said that the school is honored to be part of such a significant project, one that stands to benefit millions of people. and which uses an internationally-awarded technology.
